Restrictive vs liberal blood transfusion for acute upper gastrointestinal bleeding: rationale and protocol for a cluster randomized feasibility trial.

"Funding: Trial funding was awarded by the NHS Blood and Transplant R&D Committee through open competition and 2-stage external peer review, grant number 10-09-CSU."

"The trial received favorable ethical opinion from the NRES Committee South Central- Oxford C, REC reference 12/SC/0062 for conduct in England and by the Scotland A Research Ethics Committee for conduct in Scotland, REC reference 12/SS/0023. Site specific R&D department approvals will be obtained in each recruiting site in England and Scotland. The trial registration number is ISRCTN: 85757829 and the trial is registered on the NIHR Clinical Research Network (Study ID: 12078 Oral and Gastrointestinal, co-adopted by Blood, Injuries and Emergencies). Trial registration: The trial is registered as ISRCTN 85757829."