Assessment of the quality of the studies included in the first systematic review
| STARD criteria7 | ||||||||||
| 10% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 50% | 60% | 70% | 80% | 90% | 100% | |
| 1. Easily identifiable as a study of diagnostic accuracy | ||||||||||
| 2. State the research questions or study aims | ||||||||||
| 3. Describes the study population: the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the setting and the locations where the data were collected | ||||||||||
| 4. Describes participant recruitment and sampling (prospective or retrospective study) | ||||||||||
| 5. Describes the test under evaluation | ||||||||||
| 6. Describes the reference standard and its rationale | ||||||||||
| 7. Describes specimen acquisition | ||||||||||
| 8. Describes specimen storage | ||||||||||
| 9. Describes training in specimen processing | ||||||||||
| 10. Describes blinding mechanism between index and reference test results | ||||||||||
| 11. Uses appropriate statistical analysis | ||||||||||
| 12. Shows cross-tabulation of results of index and reference tests | ||||||||||
| 13. Estimates diagnostic accuracy with statistical uncertainty (CIs) | ||||||||||
| 14. Shows how indeterminate results are handled | ||||||||||
| 15. Describes variability and subgroup analysis | ||||||||||
| 16. Discusses clinical applicability of findings | ||||||||||