Fig. 1

Study flow diagram. ^aFailure to identify patients presenting for elective AAA surgery early enough at the start of study and therefore unable to supply study information to patients in appropriate time scale. ^bPatient on sulphonylurea type drugs or nicorandil (6); Lacked capacity (2). ^cUnavailability and shortage of research staff to facilitate recruitment (6); Surgery cancelled (3); Patient refused (1); recruitment of patients undergoing EVAR was temporarily suspended while the results of the interim analysis were reviewed (6)