Creating enriched training sets of eligible studies for large systematic reviews: the utility of PubMed's Best Match algorithm.

Introduction: Solutions like crowd screening and machine learning can assist systematic reviewers with heavy screening burdens but require training sets containing a mix of eligible and ineligible studies. This study explores using PubMed's Best Match algorithm to create small training sets containing at least five relevant studies.

Methods: Six systematic reviews were examined retrospectively.

Parental Understanding of Research Consent Forms in the PICU: A Pilot Study.

Objectives: To describe legal guardians' understanding of key concepts in a research consent form presented within 24 hours of their child's admission to the PICU and to explore legal guardians' opinions of the format (language, length) of the consent form and the overall consent process.

Design: Single-center, exploratory pilot study.

Setting: PICU at a tertiary-care hospital in Canada.

Random serum free cortisol and total cortisol measurements in pediatric septic shock.

Background The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between serum total cortisol (TC) and free cortisol (FC) levels in children with septic shock and the relationship of these levels with baseline illness severity. Methods A sub-study of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of hydrocortisone vs. placebo in pediatric septic shock conducted in seven academic pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) in Canada on children aged newborn to 17 years.

Ability to Assent in Pediatric Critical Care Research: A Prospective Environmental Scan of Two Canadian PICUs.

Objectives: To determine the number of patients considered not appropriate to approach for assent within the first 24 hours of PICU admission.

Design: Exploratory prospective 1-month environmental scan.

Setting: Two tertiary Canadian PICUs.

Study protocol for a phase II dose evaluation randomized controlled trial of cholecalciferol in critically ill children with vitamin D deficiency (VITdAL-PICU study).

Background: Clinical research has recently demonstrated that vitamin D deficiency (VDD) is highly prevalent in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and associated with worse clinical course. Multiple adult ICU trials have suggested that optimization of vitamin D status through high-dose supplementation may reduce mortality and improve other clinically relevant outcomes; however, there have been no trials of rapid normalization in the PICU setting. The objective of this study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of an enteral weight-based cholecalciferol loading dose regimen in critically ill children with VDD.

The Relationship Between Remoteness and Outcomes in Critically Ill Children.

Objective: A significant number of children live in remote geographic areas without direct access to tertiary care PICU. Our objective was to explore the relationship between remoteness and outcomes of critically ill children in Canada.

Design: Retrospective cohort study of patients admitted to the PICU from February 1, 2015, to January 31, 2016.

Comparison of Consent Models in a Randomized Trial of Corticosteroids in Pediatric Septic Shock.

Objectives: To describe the use of deferred and prior informed consent models in the context of a low additional risk to standard of care, placebo-controlled randomized controlled trial of corticosteroids in pediatric septic shock.

Design: An observational substudy of consent processes in a randomized controlled trial of hydrocortisone versus placebo.

Setting: Seven tertiary level PICUs in Canada.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Corticosteroids in Pediatric Septic Shock: A Pilot Feasibility Study.

Objective: To determine the feasibility of conducting a randomized controlled trial of corticosteroids in pediatric septic shock.

Design: Randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled trial.

Setting: Seven tertiary level PICUs in Canada.

Steroids in fluid and/or vasoactive infusion dependent pediatric shock: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Physicians often administer corticosteroids for the treatment of fluid and vasoactive infusion dependent pediatric shock. This use of corticosteroids is controversial, however, and has never been studied in a pediatric randomized controlled trial (RCT). This pilot trial will determine the feasibility of a larger RCT on the role of corticosteroids in pediatric shock.

Heat exposure increases circulating fatty acids but not lipid oxidation at rest and during exercise.

Alterations in lipid oxidation during exercise have been well studied, but limited data exists on the effects of passive heat exposure and exercise in the heat on changes in lipid oxidation. This study was designed to examine: (1) the effects of heat exposure on lipid metabolism during passive heating and subsequent exercise in the heat by focusing on changes in whole-body lipid oxidation and plasma lipid concentrations, and (2) the effects of extended passive pre-heating on exercise performance in the heat. Male participants (n=8) were passively heated for 120 min at 42 °C, then exercised on a treadmill in the same temperature at 50% V̇O2 max for 30 min (HEAT).