Table 1.
Characteristics of articles
| Characteristic | Number | Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Included studies | 94 | |
| Target patient population | ||
| Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)/acute lung injury (ALI) | 23 | 24.5 |
| Sepsis (includes sepsis, severe sepsis, septic shock) | 67 | 71.3 |
| Both sepsis and ARDS | 4 | 4.3 |
| Publication period | ||
| 2009–2013 | 43 | 45.7 |
| 2014–2019 | 51 | 54.3 |
| Journal | ||
| American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine | 9 | 9.6 |
| Chest | 1 | 1.1 |
| Critical Care | 14 | 14.9 |
| Critical Care Medicine | 16 | 17.0 |
| Intensive Care Medicine | 11 | 11.7 |
| Journal of the American Medical Association | 18 | 19.1 |
| Journal of the American Medical Association – Internal Medicine | 1 | 1.1 |
| Lancet | 2 | 2.1 |
| Lancet—Respiratory Medicine | 2 | 2.1 |
| New England Journal of Medicine | 20 | 21.3 |
| Continent of first author | ||
| Asia | 8 | 8.5 |
| Australia | 4 | 4.3 |
| Europe | 46 | 48.9 |
| North America | 21 | 22.3 |
| South America | 15 | 16.0 |
| Funding sourcesa | ||
| Academic institution | 19 | 20.2 |
| Association or foundation | 14 | 14.9 |
| Government | 47 | 50.0 |
| Industry | 21 | 22.3 |
| Unreported | 9 | 9.6 |
| Interventionb | ||
| Clinical protocol | 32 | 34.0 |
| Device | 12 | 12.8 |
| Diagnostic test | 1 | 1.1 |
| Drug | 50 | 53.2 |
| Consent type | ||
| Prospective | 76 | 80.9 |
| Retrospective | 18 | 19.1 |
| Enrollment achievedc (N = 90) | ||
| 95% of target sample size enrolled | 54 | 60 |
| < 95% of target sample size enrolled | 36 | 40 |
| Futilitya | 15 | 41.6 |
| Safetya | 10 | 27.8 |
| Efficacya | 4 | 11.1 |
| Slow enrollmenta | 8 | 22.2 |
| Other/not reporteda | 4 | 11.1 |
aNot mutually exclusive, bOne article reported both a pharmacotherapeutic and clinical protocol intervention, cFour trials did not report a sample size target