Low dose dexamethasone as treatment for women with heavy menstrual bleeding: A response-adaptive randomised placebo-controlled dose-finding parallel group trial (DexFEM).

Background: The symptom of heavy menstrual bleeding (HMB) diminishes quality-of-life for many mid-age women and imposes substantial societal burden. We investigated our hypothesis that HMB reflects impaired endometrial vasoconstriction due to endometrial glucocorticoid deficiency. Does reversing this deficiency, by short-term luteal-phase treatment with exogenous glucocorticoid (dexamethasone), ameliorate HMB?

Methods: In our Bayesian response-adaptive parallel-group placebo-controlled randomised trial, five pre-planned interim analyses used primary outcome data to adjust randomisation probabilities to favour doses providing most dose-response information.

Functional Strength Training and Movement Performance Therapy for Upper Limb Recovery Early Poststroke-Efficacy, Neural Correlates, Predictive Markers, and Cost-Effectiveness: FAST-INdiCATE Trial.

Background: Variation in physiological deficits underlying upper limb paresis after stroke could influence how people recover and to which physical therapy they best respond.

Objectives: To determine whether functional strength training (FST) improves upper limb recovery more than movement performance therapy (MPT). To identify: (a) neural correlates of response and (b) whether pre-intervention neural characteristics predict response.

Early PREdiction of Severe Sepsis (ExPRES-Sepsis) study: protocol for an observational derivation study to discover potential leucocyte cell surface biomarkers.

Introduction: Sepsis is an acute illness resulting from infection and the host immune response. Early identification of individuals at risk of developing life-threatening severe sepsis could enable early triage and treatment, and improve outcomes. Currently available biomarkers have poor predictive value for predicting subsequent clinical course in patients with suspected infection.