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Table 2 Factors related to methodological quality

From: An assessment of the characteristics and quality of diagnostic accuracy studies for positron emission tomography conducted in Japan: a systematic review

Variables

Number of studies

Odds ratio

95% confidence interval

p value

Diseases

    

  Respiratory cancer

30

Ref.

  

  Gastrointestinal cancer

7

0.98

0.13 to 7.44

1.0

  Gynecological cancer

19

0.38

0.09 to 1.56

0.2

  Head and neck cancer

14

0.39

0.08 to 1.80

0.2

  Breast cancer

10

0.23

0.04 to 1.46

0.1

Others

58

0.23

0.07 to 0.76

0.02

Publication year

    

  2002

14

Ref.

  

  2003 to 2006

38

0.11

0.02 to 0.53

0.01

  2007 to 2010

86

0.30

0.07 to 1.30

0.1

Sample size

    

  Less than 24

30

Ref.

  

  25 to 49

50

1.43

0.47 to 4.35

0.5

  50 to 99

31

1.00

0.28 to 3.58

1.0

  Over 100

27

0.53

0.13 to 2.12

0.4

Study design

    

  Retrospective study

103

Ref.

  

  Prospective study

35

2.78

1.05 to 7.35

0.04

Funding source

    

  No description

121

Ref.

  

  Description included

17

2.9

0.78 to 10.73

0.1

Index type

    

  Not indexed in MEDLINE

69

Ref.

  

  Indexed in MEDLINE

69

0.84

0.34 to 2.10

0.7

Comparative study

    

  No

72

Ref.

  

  Yes

66

1.53

0.64 to 3.62

0.3