Title: A systematic review on the diagnostic and prognostic role of pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A in patients with cardiovascular disease
Highlights: Clinical studies focusing on the diagnostic or prognostic impact of pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A in patients with or at risk for coronary, carotid, or peripheral atherosclerotic disease will be searched in several databases, retrieved, appraised, and meta-analytically pooled when appropriate
Principal investigator: Giuseppe Biondi Zoccai, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
PubMed search strategy: ((Pregnancy-associated plasma protein-A AND ((cardiovascular disease[mesh]) OR carotid OR arterial OR coronary OR angina OR myocardial OR infarction))) AND ((sensitiv*[Title/Abstract] OR sensitivity and specificity[MeSH Terms] OR diagnos*[Title/Abstract] OR diagnosis[MeSH:noexp] OR diagnostic *[MeSH:noexp] OR diagnosis,differential[MeSH:noexp] OR diagnosis[Subheading:noexp]) OR (incidence[MeSH:noexp] OR mortality[MeSH Terms] OR follow up studies[MeSH:noexp] OR prognos*[Text Word] OR predict*[Text Word] OR course*[Text Word]))

Title: Appraising the internal validity, quality of reporting and funding of meta-analyses comparing drug-eluting versus bare-metal coronary stents
Highlights: Meta-analyses comparing drug-eluting versus bare-metal stents will be searched in several databases, retrieved and appraised; primary authors will then be contacted to explore the potential impact of funding and conflicts of interest on internal validity, quality of reporting, and implications of the individual meta-analyses
Principal investigator: Giuseppe Biondi Zoccai, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
PubMed search strategy (adapted from Montori et al, BMJ 2005): drug* AND eluting* AND stent* AND coronary AND (((systematic review* [tiab] OR systematic literature review* OR meta-analysis [pt] OR meta-analysis [ti] OR metaanalysis [ti] OR meta-analyses [ti] OR evidence-based medicine OR (evidence-based AND (guideline [tiab] OR guidelines [tiab] OR recommendations)) OR (evidenced-based AND (guideline [tiab] OR guidelines [tiab] OR recommendation*)) OR consensus development conference [pt] OR health planning guidelines OR guideline[pt] OR cochrane database syst rev OR acp journal club OR health technol assess OR evid rep technol assess summ OR evid based dent OR evid based nurs OR evid based ment health OR clin evid) OR ((systematic [tiab] OR systematically OR critical [tiab] OR (study [tiab] AND selection [tiab]) OR (predetermined OR inclusion AND criteri*) OR exclusion criteri* OR "main outcome measures" OR "standard of care" OR "standards of care") AND (survey [tiab] OR surveys [tiab] OR overview* OR review [tiab] OR reviews [tiab] OR search* OR handsearch OR analysis [tiab] OR critique [tiab] OR appraisal OR (reduction AND risk AND (death OR recurrence))) AND (literature [tiab] OR articles [tiab] OR publications [tiab] OR publication [tiab] OR bibliography [tiab] OR bibliographies [tiab] OR published [tiab] OR unpublished OR citation OR citations OR database [tiab] OR internet [tiab] OR textbooks [tiab] OR references OR trials [tiab] OR meta-analysis [mh] OR (clinical [tiab] AND studies [tiab]) OR treatment outcome)) NOT (case report [ti] OR editorial [ti] OR editorial [pt] OR letter [pt] OR newspaper article [pt])))

Title: The impact of intracoronary cell therapy on left ventricular function in the setting of acute myocardial infarction: a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled clinical trials
Highlights: Controlled trials comparing intracoronary stem cell therapy in patients with acute myocardial infarction will be searched in several databases, and the effect of intracoronary stem cell therapy in comparison to standard medical therapy will be appraised on several endpoints, including clinical and remodelling ones
Principal investigator: Michael Lipinski, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

Title: A systematic review on the optimal clopidogrel loading regimen in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention
Highlights: Controlled trials comparing different clopidogrel loading regimens will be searched in several databases, and their results pooled when appropriate with meta-analytic methods to compute 30-day rates of major adverse cardiovascular events
Principal investigator: Giuseppe Biondi Zoccai, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
Primary investigators of the original clinical studies wishing to submit additional or missing data should refer to appropriate study report forms (a, b, c, and d), which are available online
PubMed search strategy: (randomized controlled trial[pt] OR controlled clinical trial[pt] OR randomized controlled trials[mh] OR random allocation[mh] OR double-blind method[mh] OR single-blind method[mh] OR clinical trial[pt] OR clinical trials[mh] OR (clinical trial[tw] OR ((singl*[tw] OR doubl*[tw] OR trebl*[tw] OR tripl*[tw]) AND (mask*[tw] OR blind[tw])) OR (latin square[tw]) OR placebos[mh] OR placebo*[tw] OR random*[tw] OR research design[mh:noexp] OR comparative study[mh] OR evaluation studies[mh] OR follow-up studies[mh] OR prospective studies[mh] OR cross-over studies[mh] OR control*[tw] OR prospectiv*[tw] OR volunteer*[tw]) NOT (animal[mh] NOT human[mh]) NOT (comment[pt] OR editorial[pt] OR meta-analysis[pt] OR practice-guideline[pt] OR review[pt])) AND clopidogrel AND loading AND (stent* OR (coronary AND angioplasty))

Title: A systematic review on drug-eluting stent implantation in patients with unprotected left main coronary artery disease
Highlights: Published studies on patients treated with drug-eluting stents for unprotected left main coronary artery disease will be searched in several databases, and their results pooled when appropriate with meta-analytic methods to compute early and mid-term rates of major adverse cardiovascular events in the overall group and in selected subgroups
Principal investigator: Giuseppe Biondi Zoccai, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
Primary investigators of the original clinical studies wishing to submit additional or missing data should refer to appropriate study report forms (a, b, c, and d), which are available online
The following highly sensitive strategies were used for database search in BioMedCentral, Google Scholar and PubMed, respectively: left AND main AND coronary AND stent*; unprotected AND left AND main AND coronary AND artery AND disease AND drug AND eluting AND stent*; left AND main AND coronary AND stent* NOT case reports[pt] NOT review[pt] NOT editorial[pt]