Why are we interested in blood pressure

In addition to giving you a feeling for how long it takes to run real-life trials, we mention this point because it emphasizes that it is essential that methodological considerations receive constant vigilance in all studies because some trials can last several years. 

The domain of experimental methodology embraces many aspects of conducting a trial, and we do not discuss the vast majority in this book. However, it is important to make you aware of 

Two clinical endpoints of particular relevance are morbidity and mortality Morbidity can lessen quality of life and make mortality more likely, and mortality speaks for itself. Not surprisingly, pharmacotherapy (along with 

The choice of endpoints used in studies of new therapies may evolve over time as knowledge is gained about the natural history of the disease or the reliability of surrogate endpoints. Endpoints used to evaluate the benefits of new drugs are provided in Table 4.1 for a number of diseases. Many diseases are associated with numerous medical conditions of consequence to the patient (for example, pain and disability resulting from rheumatoid arthritis), which may be the target for a particular new therapy. 

We are interested in high blood pressure (hypertension) because of our interest in cardiovascular disease, a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. High blood pressure is a meaningful and useful cardiovascular surrogate endpoint because it is well established that chronic high blood pressure causes cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events. 

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