2. A study was conducted to campare the effectiveness and safety of two different treatments in patients with chronic kidney disease. To validate the hypothesis that the 2 treatments were equivalent, 32 patients with kidney disease were equally divided into two groups (group A and Group B), and they were randomly assigned to methylprednisolone alternated with a cytotoxic drug every other month for 6 months (group A) or to intramuscular synthetic adrenocorticotropic hormone administered twice a week for 1 year (group B). The primary outcome measure is cumulative number of remissions. Aer a median follow-up of 24 months (interqusrtile range, 15 to 25 months), there were 4 complete in group A versus 3 complete remissions in group B. Some of the demographic and histological characteristics of patients are given below: Characteristic Group A (n = 16) Group B (n = 16] Age (5?) 51.4 e 9.5 (33-66) 48 2 1.2.9 (26-69) Sex (MP) 719 12/4 Serum creatinine (mdL) 0.9 e 0.1? 1.0 e 0.36 Urinary protein excretion (yd) 5.5 i 2.0 6.7 s: 2.8 Hypertension 9 9 Glorneruiar stage at renal biopsy III . 12 14 Ill-IV 4 2