Alive (n=327) Dead (n=95) P(unadjusted) P(adjusted) Female 52 (78%) 20 (22%) 0.43 0.59 Male 273 (79%) 75 (21%) 0.43 0.59 Age (years) 73.9 (65.1 to 78.6) 67.3 (59.6 to 74. 6) <0.0001 <0.0001 CRP (mg/dl) 3.8 (1.4 to 13.7) 2.4 (1.1 to 6.2) 0.005 0.05 Creatinine (mmol/l) 121 (100 to 150) 107 (92 to 125) <0.0001 <0.0001 WBC (E+9/l 11.7 (8.9 to15.9) 12.6 (10.3 to 15.2) 0.18 0.48 BNP (pmol/L) 112 (40 to 309) 33 (15 to 88) <0.0001 <0.0001

Table 2: Baseline characteristic of those who were alive or dead at 7.5 years of follow up. Results are median (IQR) or number (%) as appropriate. When multivariate analysis was performed for all risk factors that that had unadjusted p<0.05, BNP remained significant (p<0.001), but CRP was no longer significant (p=0.052).