The phrase "a small trial of" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when referring to a limited or preliminary test or experiment of something, often to assess its effectiveness or feasibility.
Example: "We conducted a small trial of the new software to evaluate its performance before a full rollout."
Alternatives: "a brief test of" or "a minor experiment with".
Belgium plans to start a small trial of 50 drivers in September.
Genentech, the biotechnology company, said yesterday that its experimental cancer drug Avastin had failed to extend survival rates significantly in a small trial of patients with colorectal cancer.
At around the same time, the results of a small trial of thalidomide in patients with the bone marrow cancer myeloma were published.
Vivus, aiming at surgically menopausal women, found a 64% increase in "satisfying" sexual activity in a small trial of premenopausal women (placebo was 42%) and is now launching a larger late-stage test in postmenopausal women.
In November, a small trial of the drug in 47 patients showed that it decreased the amount of plaque in the arteries of patients with very severe artery disease by 4% after five weeks of treatment.
DHL, meanwhile, has just started a small trial of its "parcelocopters" to deliver medicine to hard to reach places in Germany – a small but perhaps significant step towards more general use.
29 A smaller trial of 4 heavily pre-treated CTCL patients who received either 9 (1 patient) or 18 (3 patients) μg/kg/day of DAB 389-IL2 for 5 days of a 21-day cycle showed striking results.
Recently, Promrat et al. (24) reported the results of an smaller trial of lifestyle intervention for 31 overweight patients with biopsy-proven nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, and their results are in agreement with our findings.
Update: A Google spokesperson said the change is part of a small trial to help the company better understand customers.
In a small trial, about 60 percent of such children had a clinically meaningful response to the drug, Osiris said.
In a very small trial of Japanese patients newly diagnosed with T2DM, voglibose 0.9 mg daily reduced A1c from 8% at baseline to 6.3%.
