Table 2.

Method for calculating the hierarchical endpoint

Index subject died	Comparison subject died	Days free of ventilator for index subject vs. comparison subject	Points for index subject	Points for comparison subject
Yes	Yes	N/A	0 (tie)	0 (tie)
No	Yes	N/A	+1 (win)	−1 (lose)
Yes	No	N/A	−1 (lose)	+1 (win)
No	No	More	+1 (win)	−1 (lose)
No	No	Less	−1 (lose)	+1 (win)
No	No	Same	0 (tie)	0 (tie)

The points are summed up to obtain a cumulative score for each subject. Every patient is compared to every other patient in both study arms. The scores are compared between study arms by a Mann-Whitney test.