A step-by-step guide to the systematic review and meta-analysis of diagnostic and prognostic test accuracy evaluations.

ABSTRACT: In evidence-based medicine (EBM), systematic reviews and meta-analyses have been widely applied in biological and medical research. Moreover, the most popular application of meta-analyses in this field may be to examine diagnostic (sensitivity and specificity) and prognostic (hazard ratio (HR) and its variance, standard error (SE) or confidence interval (CI)) test accuracy. However, conducting such analyses requires not only a great deal of time but also an advanced professional knowledge of mathematics, statistics and computer science. Regarding the practical application of meta-analyses for diagnostic and prognostic markers, the majority of users are clinicians and biologists, most of whom are not skilled at mathematics and computer science in particular. Hence, it is necessary for these

SUBMITTER: Liu Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3681011 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature