ArticleESC heart failure2021
Discontinuation and non-publication of heart failure randomized controlled trials: a call to publish all trial results.
Article in ESC heart failure, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Time to publication for results of clinical trials.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Research waste in total knee arthroplasty studies: an observational study on registered trials.BMJ open · 2026Observational
- Approaches in analyzing predictors of trial failure: a scoping review and meta-epidemiological study.BMC medical research methodology · 2026Article
- The unsolvable problem of traumatic brain injury (or how to stop wasting money in fruitless research).Surgical neurology international · 2026Review
- Exploring scalable assessment methods for terminated trials in ClinicalTrials.gov: A cohort analysis of German and Californian trials.PloS one · 2026Article
- Clinical trials in small-cell lung cancer treatment: a cross-sectional analysis of trial discontinuation and non-publication.Discover oncology · 2025Article
- Determinants of clinical trial failure in multiple sclerosis: insights from ClinicalTrials.gov.Research square · 2025Article
- Article
- Factors affecting the non-publication of clinical trials of prevalent urological cancer.World journal of urology · 2024Article
- Adapting, restarting, and terminating a randomised control trial for people with cystic fibrosis: Reflections on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic upon research in a clinical population.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2024Article
- Discontinuation and nonpublication of clinical trials in orthopaedic oncology.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2024Article
- Understanding the Termination of Urologic Cancer Clinical Trials: Insights and Challenges.JCO global oncology · 2024Article
- Rates of discontinuation and non-publication of upper and lower extremity fracture clinical trials.Journal of orthopaedic surgery and research · 2023Article
- Discontinuation and non-publication of heart failure randomized controlled trials: a call to publish all trial results.ESC heart failure · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
aimsDiscontinuation or non-publication of trials may hinder scientific progress and violates the commitment made to research participants. We sought to identify the prevalence of discontinuation and non-publication of heart failure (HF) clinical trials. METHODS AND
resultsWe conducted a cross-sectional search of ClinicalTrials.gov to identify all completed and discontinued HF clinical trials. We limited our search to only include trials that were completed by 31 December 2017. Trials were investigated to identify reasons for discontinuation. Informative termination was defined as trial termination due to safety or efficacy concerns. Data pertaining to the trial phase, funding, intervention, enrolment, and trial completion date were extracted for each trial. A total of 572 trials were included. Of these, 21% (n = 118) were discontinued before completion. Patient accrual was the most frequently cited reason (n = 42; 36%) for trial discontinuation, followed by informative termination (n = 16; 14%) and funding (n = 14; 12%). Overall, 24 780 patients were enrolled in trials that were terminated. Of trials that were completed and not terminated, nearly one-third (n = 131/454; 29%) were not published. Seventy-nine (24%) trials were published within 12 months, 192 (59%) within 24 months, and 252 (78%) trials within 36 months.
conclusionsDiscontinuation and non-publication of HF trials is common. This raises ethical concerns towards participants who volunteer for research and are exposed to potential risks, inconvenience, and discomfort without furthering scientific progress.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.