Angus 2000.

Methods	Prospective, randomised trial.
Participants	34 participants (age range 18 to 73 years; 47% male) with septicaemic melioidosis. Exclusion: pregnant women, participants who had already received effective antimicrobial therapy, and those with known hypersensitivity to beta‐lactam antibiotics.
Interventions	Ceftazidime 40 mg/kg i.v. q8h versus ceftazidime 12 mg/kg i.v. loading dose, followed by 4 mg/kg/h; treatment duration at least 10 days.
Outcomes	No outcomes explicitly stated.
Notes	Objective was to study the "pharmacokinetics and in vivo bacterial killing rates" of both regimens.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Participants were randomly assigned, but randomisation method was not stated (pg. 446).
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Not stated.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Not stated.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	High risk	34 participants were enrolled in the study and received study drug, but 13 were excluded (8 continuous, 5 intermittent) from the PK/PD analysis. Reason for exclusion from analysis was not clear ("data from 21 patients were suitable for PK analysis" pg. 447). Mortality status of these 13 participants is known, but not sure how many in continuous or intermittent group (11/13 died).
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	High risk	No outcomes stated. The objective stated in the discussion does not match that stated in the introduction. The authors state, "the original objective of the study to compare bacterial clearance rates between the two regimens could not be fulfilled because the overall mortality was so high in pour plate positive patients."
Other bias	Low risk	Female to male ratio for continuous infusion group is 1:9 and for bolus group is 7:4. Blood cultures were negative for 4 participants in continuous infusion group and for none in bolus group. More in bolus group were pour plate positive compared with the infusion group (N = 7 vs N = 4). Maintenance oral treatment with amoxicillin/clavulanic acid or the combination of cotrimoxazole, chloramphenicol, and doxycycline permitted. Funded by the Wellcome Trust for Great Britain.