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Fig. 1 | BMC Medicine

Fig. 1

From: Allopurinol and the risk of ventricular arrhythmias in the elderly: a study using US Medicare data

Fig. 1

Patient selection flow chart. The flow chart shows the selection of new allopurinol exposure episodes after applying all the eligibility criteria, including an absence of VA and the absence of any allopurinol filled prescription in the baseline period of 365 days (new user design). We found 28,755 new allopurinol exposure episodes in 26,905 patients. Of these, 2538 ended in incident VA and 26,217 ended without incident VA. * We followed each eligible patient with a new filled allopurinol prescription until the patient lost full Medicare coverage, had VA (the outcome of interest), died or reached the each of the study period on December 31, 2012, whichever came first. For some of these patients, the VA occurred on days covered by allopurinol exposure (n = 1525), yet other patients had periods of no allopurinol exposure after an initial qualifying allopurinol exposure during which VA occurred (n = 1013). Nb Number of beneficiaries, T E treatment episodes, Np Number of allopurinol prescriptions, NE Number of qualified episodes of new allopurinol prescriptions, VA Ventricular arrhythmia

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