Table 5.

Overall Quality of Evidence, Diagnostic Accuracy of Thyroglobulin Measurement

Clinical scenario	No. of studies	Methodological limitations	Imprecision	Inconsistency	Indirectness	Overall qualitya
Partial thyroidectomy	4 (N = 561)	Very serious	Serious	Serious	Not serious	Very low
Total/near-total thyroidectomy, no RAI	5 (N = 751)	Very serious	Serious	Serious	Not serious	Very low
Total/near-total thyroidectomy, Tg measurement obtained before RAI	28 (N = 7618)	Very serious	Not serious	Serious	Seriousb	Very low

Formal assessment for small sample effects and potential publication bias was not performed, due to the small number of studies (partial thyroidectomy and total/near-total thyroidectomy without RAI), very serious methodological limitations, and heterogeneity in populations, Tg thresholds, Tg methods, and outcomes.

^a The overall quality of evidence on diagnostic accuracy for all clinical outcomes (metastasis, recurrence, persistence, or a composite) was graded very low.

^b Downgraded for indirectness because of reduced generalizability to patients who undergo total/near-total thyroidectomy and do not receive RAI.