[Systematic reviews in practice. X. Searching, selecting and the methodological assessment of diagnostic evaluation research].
Literature concerning the value of diagnostic tests is poorly indexed in electronic bibliographical databases. An extensive, sensitive and specific search strategy for evaluation of a diagnostic test in Medline is a combination of key words or text words concerning the diagnostic test with: 'sensitivity and specificity' (exploded), 'mass screening' (exploded), 'reference values', 'false positive reactions', 'false negative reactions', 'specificit$.tw', 'screening.tw', 'false positive$.tw', 'false negative$.tw', 'accuracy.tw', 'predictive value$.tw', 'reference value$.tw', 'roc$.tw' or 'likelihood ratio$.tw'. Inclusion and exclusion criteria select publications which meet certain minimum requirements, such as the presence of an accepted reference standard, a clear definition of 'diseased', and the presence of a suitable outcome measure. The methodological assessment list should contain a number of validity criteria as well as a number of criteria by which to measure the extent to which the study results can be generalised. Important assessment criteria that may affect the diagnostic value of the test are: study design, blinding, use of different reference standards, the absence of details about the diagnostic criteria for the diagnostic test and insufficient information about the study population.
Devillé
W L J M
WL
Instituut voor Extramuraal Geneeskundig Onderzoek, VU Medisch Centrum, Amsterdam. w.deville@nivel.nl
Bossuyt
P M M
PM
de Vet
H C W
HC
Bezemer
P D
PD
Bouter
L M
LM
Assendelft
W J J
WJ
D003955:Diagnostic Tests, Routine / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D016239:MEDLINE / Q000592:standards*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012106:Research / Q000592:standards*; D012196:Review Literature as Topic; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity