Table 1.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Characteristic	Inclusion	Exclusion
Population	‐ Patient with cervical myelopathy ‐ Patients 18 years old or more	‐ Patients with spondylosis but do not exhibit myelopathy ‐ Thoracic or lumbar myelopathy ‐ Patients with traumatic cervical spinal cord injury ‐ Patients with tumour or infection
Clinical sign	‐ Tromner’s’ sign ‐ Babinski ‐ Hoffmann ‐ Clonus ‐ Inverted supinator ‐ Hyperreflexia (biceps, triceps, patella, brachioradialis, Achilles) ‐ Tandem gait ‐ Other clinical signs	‐ Studies using imaging modalities to diagnose DCM ‐ Patient (e.g., neck disability index, Visual Analog Scale, SF-36) or clinician (e.g., Nurick grade, mJOA score) reported outcome measures
Symptom	‐ Neck pain ‐ Autonomic dysfunction ‐ Hand numbness ‐ Hand paraesthesia ‐ Upper extremity weakness ‐ Loss of dexterity ‐ Other symptoms
Outcomes	‐ Sensitivity and specificity of clinical signs and symptoms	‐ Studies reporting only frequencies for clinical signs and symptoms
Study Design	‐ Case – controlled studies with suitable control groups (e.g., individuals with cervical radiculopathy or axial neck pain who do not exhibit myelopathic symptoms)	‐ Review articles ‐ Studies with no control group ‐ Animal studies ‐ Case series, reports