For all participants reporting a possible clinical event, clinical information was sought directly from the relevant hospital or family doctors’ notes. All details of electrocardiograms, hospital admissions, biomarkers for myocardial infarction, surgical operations, coronary angioplasty, myocardial perfusion scintigraphy, echocardiography, and medical treatment were collected. Death certificates were checked for supporting clinical and postmortem information on cause of death. A medical committee comprising one member of each PRIME centre, the coordinating centre, and three independent cardiologists was established to examine medical data relating to all suspected events. The committee assigned a code to each event according to a standardised protocol: myocardial infarction; coronary death; or angina pectoris.28 Myocardial infarction and coronary death were classified as “hard” coronary events.
