Patient characteristics by fourths of the distribution of systolic blood pressure at randomisation.

The p values denote the significance of the differences in prevalence rates or means across fourths of the distribution of systolic blood pressure at randomisation. The value of x to calculate VIM based on six blood pressure readings, two at each of three visits was 3.347. Significance of the difference with the adjacent lower fourth: *p≤0.05; †p≤0.01; ‡p≤0.001; §p<0.0001.