In a clinical trial of Lipitor (atorvastatin), a common drug used to lower chole
ID: 2925845 • Letter: I
Question
In a clinical trial of Lipitor (atorvastatin), a common drug used to lower cholesterol, 863 patients were given a treatment of 10-mg atorvastatin tablets. Nineteen of these patients experienced flu symptoms. Now, the probability of flu symptoms for a person not recieving any treatment is 0.19.
(a) Assuming that Lipitor has no effect on flu symptoms, determine the mean and standard deviation for the number of people in the group of 863 that can be expected to have flu symptoms.
(b) Based on your calculations in part (a), would it be unsual to find that among 863 people, there are 19 that experience flu symptoms? Be sure to explain why or why not.
(c) Based on the preceding results, do flu symptoms appear to be an adverse reaction that should be of concern to those who use Lipitor? Explain.
Explanation / Answer
a) here mean for the number of people in the group of 863 that can be expected to have flu symptoms =np=863*0.19=163.97
and std deviation =(np(1-p))1/2 =11.5246
b) z score of 19 =(19-163.97)/11.5246 =-12.5792
here as 19 falls 12.5791 std deviation below of mean value of 863 that can be expected to have flu symptoms, therefore it is highly unusual event to find that among 863 people there are 19 that experience flu symptoms
c)
Yes as for above we can not conclude that Lipitor cures flu or suppress its symptoms, it can be of adverse reaction and looked upon