Ascertainment of cause-specific mortality in COPD: operations of the TORCH Clinical Endpoint Committee.

ABSTRACT:

Background

TORCH (Towards a Revolution in COPD Health) is an international multicentre, randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trial of inhaled fluticasone propionate/salmeterol combination treatment and its monotherapy components for maintenance treatment of moderately to severely impaired patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The primary outcome is all-cause mortality. Cause-specific mortality and deaths related to COPD are additional outcome measures, but systematic methods for ascertainment of these outcomes have not previously been described.

Methods

A Clinical Endpoint Committee (CEC) was tasked with categorising the cause of death and the relationship of deaths to COPD in a systematic, unbiased and independent manner. The key elements of the ope

SUBMITTER: McGarvey LP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2117197 | biostudies-literature | 2007 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature