Results
A total of 66 patients were recruited for this study. Only 1
patient had ever before received allopurinol (27 months
earlier). As there were 6 study dropouts (allopurinol n 2,
placebo n 4), 60 underwent FMD and applanation tonometry
while 55 patients completed CMR (Fig. 1, Table 1).
Treatment with high-dose allopurinol significantly reduced
LVM (change in LVM: allopurinol group 5.2
5.8 g vs. placebo group 1.3 4.48 g; p 0.007) and
LVMI (change in LVMI: allopurinol group 2.2 2.78
g/m2 vs. placebo group 0.53 2.5 g/m2; p 0.023) (Fig. 2).
The absolute mean difference between the groups for
change in LVM was 3.89 g (95% confidence interval:
1.1 to 6.7) and 1.67 g/m2 (95% confidence interval:
0.23 to 3.1) for change in LVMI. The change in LVM
in the allopurinol group remained statistically significant
even after correcting for baseline LVM (p 0.013). Furthermore,
the within-group changes in LVM and LVMI
were significant in the allopurinol group (p 0.001 for