Pahari 1993.

Study characteristics
Methods	Study design: parallel, open‐label RCT Study duration: before 1993 Duration of follow‐up: 46 ± 10.2 months
Participants	Setting: not reported Country: India Patients with biopsy‐proven IMN and > 2.0 g/24 hours proteinuria Baseline characteristics Proteinuria (g/24 hours): ≥ 2 SCr (mg/dL): ≤ 2 Baseline declining kidney function: no Number (randomised/analysed): treatment group 1 (42/36); treatment group 2 (48/35) Mean age ± SD (years): treatment group 1 (35 ± 16); treatment group 2 (32 ± 20) Sex (M/F): treatment group 1 (25/11); treatment group 2 (24/11)
Interventions	Treatment group 1 Prednisolone (oral): 4 mg/kg/day from 1 to 3 days followed by oral prednisolone 0.5 mg/kg/day from 4 to 30 days (Injection dexamethasone 1 mg/kg/day from 1 to 3 days in cases who are intolerant to high dose oral prednisolone) CPA (oral): 2 mg/kg/day from 1 to 30 days of next months (oral chlorambucil was used in patients intolerant to oral CPA). The treatment was continued for 1 year Treatment group 2 Prednisolone (oral): 60 mg/day was given for 12 weeks
Outcomes	Death ESKD 50% or 100% SCr increase Partial or complete remission Side effects leading to patient withdrawal or hospitalisation
Notes	Funding source: not reported Drop‐out rate: treatment group 1 (6/42); treatment group 2 (13/48)
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Insufficient information about the sequence generation process to permit judgement
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No sufficient detail about concealment of the random allocation sequence before or during enrolment of participants
Blinding of participants and personnel (performance bias) All outcomes	High risk	Open‐label study
Blinding of outcome assessment (detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Insufficient information to permit judgement
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	90 patients were randomised, only 71/90 (79%) were finally analysed. The missing outcome data were not balanced in numbers across intervention groups: 6/42 (14%) in CPA group and 13/48 (27%) in prednisolone group
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Low risk	The study protocol was not available but it was clear that the published reports included all expected outcomes, including those that were pre‐specified
Other bias	High risk	The inclusion criteria of proteinuria was 2 g/24 hours rather than 3.5 g/24 hours