What was the pre-defined sensitivity analysis excluding the results of the BEST trial (bucindolol vs placebo)?
The pre-defined sensitivity analysis excluded the results of the BEST trial (bucindolol vs placebo) from the meta-analysis. This allowed the committee to exclude the BEST trial36 , which used bucindolol, from the meta-analysis. For the other reported outcomes (heart-failure related hospitalisation and non-fatal stroke), only an overall summary statistic was reported in the IPD. For this reason, the authors contacted the study authors and obtained the overall effect estimates for these outcomes with the BEST trial excluded from the analysis. 