The biomarker substudy comprised 236 patients consecutively included at 6 centers
from Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and was designed to analyze several
biomarkers for the prediction of outcome at study entry (abbreviations are listed
in Table 1). Blood samples were taken prior to initiation of study treatment (captopril
or losartan). The samples were therefore not influences by differences in study treatment.
Furthermore, there were no differences between the two treatment groups
with regard to outcomes, neither in the main trial nor in the substudy. Therefore, all
patients from the biomarker substudy were therefore considered a single group. The
substudy was approved by the regional ethical committees. All patients provided written
informed consent