NCT03913247: EvTaReaP

Evaluation of Methods for Extrapolating or Estimating the Size of Children in Pediatric Intensive Care

Completed Last updated 21 November 2025

What this trial tests

trial testing Size Measurement using a measuring tape, a caliper and a metric in Pediatric Intensive Care Unit in 477 participants. Completed in 26 December 2022.

Timeline

29 November 2019

Primary endpoint
22 December 2022

26 December 2022

Quick facts

Lead sponsor	Hospices Civils de Lyon
Status	Completed
Study type	OBSERVATIONAL
Enrollment	477
Start date	29 November 2019
Primary completion	22 December 2022
Estimated completion	26 December 2022
Sites	10 locations across Belgium, France, Switzerland, Lebanon

Drugs / interventions tested

• Size Measurement using a measuring tape, a caliper and a metric

Conditions studied

• Pediatric Intensive Care Unit — all drugs for Pediatric Intensive Care Unit →

Sponsor

Hospices Civils de Lyon — full company profile →

Who can join

Adults 28 Days to 18, any sex, with Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Patients with the condition only — healthy volunteers not accepted.

Sponsor's own description

Size is a key data used daily by dietary teams; the paramedical team, nurse and diet are in charge of its measures.

In pediatric intensive care unit, a reliable size of the child must be obtained. It allows to realize:

* a nutritional assessment based on the World Health Organization (WHO) nutritional indices such as the Body Mass Index (BMI), growth chart monitoring and other nutritional indices. Nutritional status should be assessed and followed in pediatric intensive care as it is correlated with the prognosis of children.
* an estimate of the energy needs by calculation of the rest energy expenditure.
* a calculation of the body surface, useful for drug prescription, evaluation of burn scores, calculation of water and energy requirements and indexing of hemodynamic and ventilatory data.

An error in size measurement results in an error in BMI, calculation of energy requirements, and body surface area.

The WHO has defined "gold standard" criteria for measuring height in children, distinguishing the less than two years in whom the size is measured strictly lengthened, using a metric, and the more than two years in which height is measured standing with a stadiometer. In the context of pediatric resuscitation, the criteria for WHO size measurement are difficult to meet (coma, sedation, respiratory assistance, catheter, monitoring, proclive position, etc.) compromising standing or rectitude required for measurements.

The child is a growing organism. Health book sizes and declarative sizes are not always up-to-date.

It is therefore important to overcome these difficulties by using estimating or extrapolation methods that are applicable and safe in pediatric intensive care unit.

Currently, in pediatric intensive care units, the size evaluation, by direct measurement, estimation or extrapolation of segmental measurement, is not systematic because of the complexity of the measurement; To date, no method is used as a reference method in pediatric intensive care.

Among Children in pediatric intensive care unit (which does not usually meet the criteria of the WHO Gold Standard for Measurement of Height), to determine the optimal method for size measurement, by comparing different methods of estimating / extrapolating the size, gold standard WHO (achievable after the stay in intensive care).

Publications & conference data

1 peer-reviewed publication reference this trial (live from Europe PMC):

1. Accurate height and length estimation in hospitalized children not fulfilling WHO criteria for standard measurement: a multicenter prospective study.
   Ford Chessel C, Berthiller J, Haran I, Tume LN, et al · · 2024 · cited 1× · PMID 39052138 · DOI 10.1007/s00431-024-05692-3