[From clinical trials to routine treatment. General aspects of clinical trials in cardiovascular diseases].

The first of two articles deals with general aspects of clinical cardiological research: hard end points -mortality and morbidity-in relation to intermediate end points, power of clinical studies, multicentre studies, meta-analyses, and the relationship between the trial population and the total patient population. The article takes up the kind of problems that are addressed in clinical research, and the relationship between the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry. The author discusses the situation as regards clinical research in Norway, and emphasizes the need for greater efforts in this field.