Table 2

Quality assessment—QUADAS tool

Author	Was the spectrum of patients representative of the patients who will receive the test in practice?	Were selection criteria clearly described?	Was the reference standard likely to correctly classify the target condition?	Was the time period between reference standard and index test short enough to be reasonably sure that the target condition did not change between the two sets?	Did the whole sample or a random selection of the sample receive verification using a reference standard of diagnosis?	Did the patients receive the same reference standard regardless of the index test result?	Was the reference standard independent of the index test? (ie the index test did not form part of the reference standard)	Was the execution of the index test described in sufficient detail to permit its replication?	Was the execution of the reference test described in sufficient detail to permit its replication?	Were the index test results interpreted without knowledge of the results of the reference standard?	Were the reference standard results interpreted without knowledge of the results of the index test?	Were the same clinical data available when test results were interpreted as would be available when the test is used in practice?	Were un-interpretable /intermediate test results reported?	Were withdrawals from the study explained?
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14
Beumer et al 26	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	N/A	Yes	Unclear	Yes	Unclear	Yes	Yes	Yes
Nussbaum et al16	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	N/A	Yes	Yes	Unclear	Unclear	Yes	Yes	Yes
Alonsoet al36 *	Yes	Yes	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Yes	N/A	N/A	N/A	Yes	Yes	Yes

*QUADAS tool appropriate for reliability, not for validity. Therefore no reference test was required (items 3–7, 9–11).
N/A, the item is not applicable to this study.