Fig. 3.

Sensitivity analysis

(a) Leave-one-out meta-analysis of left atrium diameter (Sorted by I²)

(b) Leave-one-out meta-analysis of left atrium diameter (Sorted by effect size)

(c) Cumulative meta-analysis of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation frequency (Sorted by year)

The sensitivity analysis was conducted using R Studio software. A leave-one-out meta-analysis was conducted to assess the influence of each study on the effect estimates by excluding one study at a time, identifying studies that significantly influenced heterogeneity. A cumulative meta-analysis was also performed to evaluate how the average effect estimates, and CI changed as studies were added individually over time. The results in (a) and (b) are presented as mean differences with 95 % confidence intervals and results in (c) are presented as standardized mean differences. A random-effects model with a significance level of 0.05 was employed for the sensitivity analysis in (a) and (b), whereas a common effect model was utilized in (c).

SMD; Standardized Mean Difference.