It is almost inevitable with so many demographic parameters that a few will by
chance be different at baseline, although few differences
were statistically significant. Additionally, the patients recruited
in this study were predominantly men and the
number of diabetic patients was low. Finally, although
significant, the effect of allopurinol on LVM is modest,
although it is similar in percentage terms to what was seen
between the 2 treatments in the echo substudy of the LIFE
trial (7).