TEMPORAL TRENDS IN USE OF COMPOSITE ENDPOINTS IN MAJOR CARDIOVASCULAR RANDOMIZED CLINICAL TRIALS

摘要

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular mortality has decreased significantly over the last three decades, with a corresponding increase in the difficulty of demonstrating significant benefits of new therapies in randomized clinical trials. We sought todetermine whether the use of composite endpoints has increased in major cardiovascular trials over time, and to examine temporal trends in the clinical importance of their individual components.