ArticleBMJ open2025
Effectiveness and safety of shortened intensive treatment for children with tuberculous meningitis (SURE): a protocol for a phase 3 randomised controlled trial evaluating 6 months of antituberculosis therapy and 8 weeks of aspirin in Asian and African children with tuberculous meningitis.
Article in BMJ open, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A clinical practice guideline for tuberculous meningitis.The Lancet. Infectious diseases · 2026Guideline
- Integration of transcriptome and mendelian randomization elucidates the protective role of aspirin in pulmonary tuberculosis development.Functional & integrative genomics · 2026Article
- The Utility of a Three-gene Host Response to Discriminate Tuberculous Meningitis From Other Infections in Children.The Pediatric infectious disease journal · 2026Article
- Drug-Resistant Tuberculous Meningitis (DR-TBM) in a Low-Incidence Setting: Two Cases and an Evidence Review Highlighting Key Advances and Knowledge Gaps in Clinical Management.Open forum infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Brain Imaging and Whole Blood Targeted Transcriptomic Analyses to Characterize Cerebral Infarctions in Children With Tuberculous Meningitis.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
33 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionChildhood tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is a devastating disease. The long-standing WHO recommendation for treatment is 2 months of intensive phase with isoniazid (H), rifampicin (R), pyrazinamide (Z) and ethambutol (E), followed by 10 months of isoniazid and rifampicin. In 2022, WHO released a conditional recommendation that 6 months of intensified antituberculosis therapy (ATT) could be used as an alternative for drug-susceptible TBM. However, this has never been evaluated in a randomised clinical trial. Trials evaluating ATT shortening regimens using high-dose rifampicin and drugs with better central nervous system penetration alongside adjuvant anti-inflammatory therapy are needed to improve outcomes. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Local ethics committees at all participating study sites and respective regulators approved the SURE protocol. Ethics approval was also obtained from UCL, UK (14935/001). Informed consent from parents/carers and assent from age-appropriate children are required for all participants. Results will be published in international peer-reviewed journals, and appropriate media will be used to summarise results for patients and their families and policymakers.
trial registrationISRCTN40829906 (registered 13 November 2018).
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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.