The Efficacy and Safety of HYDROXYUREA in Management of Beta Thalassemia Patients in Karachi Pakistan

Study Enrollment Procedures

• The study participants will be examined on the screening visit to assess their eligibility to participate. Each participant will consent in writing (Appendix I) to the screening process before the start of the examination and laboratory or radiology investigations. Screening log will be maintained to record this information.
• Parental consent (for minors age group \< 18 years) will be obtained from a legal guardian accompanying the participant.
• The research unit will produce a computer generated sets of random allocations stratified on the basis of presence or absence of Xmn in advance of the start of the study. They will be then sealed in consecutively numbered opaque envelopes. The study participants will be randomly assigned to the investigation arm or control arm accordingly.

Storage and Accountability

All study drugs must be kept in a secure place under adequate storage conditions - protected from moisture and light and under required temperature (in refrigerator if required). Records of dispensing and returns will be maintained by the trial site (Omair Sana Foundation) in form of counts of tablets dispensed or returned. The subject must return all unused study medication for each treatment period to the trial center.

Statistical Analysis plan Intention to treat analysis Each participant will be analyzed in the group he was assigned to (investigational arm and control arm) at the time of study initiation rather than what he /she will take (drug orstandard treatment). Data will be entered and analyzed through statistical software SPSS version 17. Descriptive and inferential statistics will be analyzed. Descriptive statistics will be presented as means, standard deviations and ninety five percent confidence levels of the means for continuous variables and frequency and percentages for categorical variable.

Analysis per protocol patient:

Additional sensitivity analysis will be done as per protocol patient. Those participants will be analyzed who will receive at least 80% of the assigned intervention.

Inferential analysis: The mean difference in the efficacy and safety parameters from baseline to end will be reported along with p-value and ninety five percent confidence intervals. To find the difference, dependent T-test will be performed in case of normally distributed variables, Wilcoxan Signed Rank test for variables assuming non-parametric distribution and chi-square test of independence will be performed in case of categorical variables. The results will be displayed in form of graphs and tables. The results will be considered as statistically significant if p-value is less than 0.05 (level of significance).

Baseline characteristics: The demographic, background and baseline data and baseline characteristics of study participants will be presented descriptively. Protocol violations will be listed per participant, describing the nature of the violation. Participants failing to complete the study (as well as the times and reasons for discontinuation) will be displayed.

Analysis of Safety: Adverse Events, as reported throughout the course of the trial will be listed. Pre-, study and post-study findings of physical examination, vital sign variables, laboratory variables will be listed individually and summarized; values outside the normal range will be highlighted.

DATA COLLECTION AND QUALITY ASSURANCE Data Collection Forms Standard CRF (Appendix II) is designed for the data collection purpose. Data Management Database will be formed in order to record data from the folders for the trial patients.

Quality Assurance Data from the study will be collected in CRFs. Data editing will be performed at the trial center, comparing source and CRF entries.

During the study an independent monitor will visit the investigational site randomly without prior notification to confirm that the facilities remain acceptable, that the investigational team is adhering to the protocol and that data are being accurately recorded in the CRFs. Source data verification (a comparison of the data in the CRF with the participants' laboratory test results and other source documents) will also be performed.

Authorized representatives of the regulatory authority (e.g. IRB) may visit the center to perform inspections, including source data verification.

Clean File for the final database will be declared when all data have been entered and a quality check on a sample of the data has been performed. The database will be locked after Clean File has been declared and data extracted for statistical analysis.

Study committee meetings will be held as needed prior to or during the study. The medical, nursing and other research staff involved in the study will receive proper training on how to conduct the study and record the information according to the protocol.