Table 2.

General characteristics and general quality criteria of randomized trials in acute cardiogenic pulmonary edema patients included in the study

Reference	Country and Setting	Sample size	Interventions	Outcomes analyzed	Randomization assignment concealmenta	Objective selection criteriab	Blindingc	Standardization of co-interventionsd	Intention-to-treat analysise	Complete follow-up detailsf	Outcome definitiong
Rasanen et al. 1985 [62]	Finland: ED and ICU	40	SMT vs CPAP	Meeting criteria for ETI during 3 h follow-up; in-hospital mortality	Adequate	Yes	NR	Yes	Adequate	Yes	Adequate
Bersten et al. 1991 [63]	Australia: ICU	39	SMT vs CPAP	Meeting criteria for ETI during 24 h follow-up; in-hospital mortality	Uncertain	Yes	No	Yes	Uncertain	Yes	Adequate
Lin et al. 1995 [57]	Taiwan: ICU	100	SMT vs CPAP	Meeting criteria for ETI during 6 h follow-up; in-hospital mortality	Uncertain	Yes	NR	Yes	Adequate	Yes	Adequate
Takeda et al. 1997 [11]	Japan: CU	30	SMT vs CPAP	Meeting criteria for ETI during 24 h follow-up; in-hospital mortality	Uncertain	Yes	NR	Yes	Adequate	Yes	Adequate
Takeda et al. 1998 [12]	Japan: CU	22	SMT vs CPAP	Meeting criteria for ETI during 48 h follow-up; in-hospital mortality	Adequate	Yes	NR	Yes	Adequate	Yes	Adequate
Kelly et al. 2002 [16]	Scotland, UK: ED and HDU	58	SMT vs CPAP	Meeting criteria for treatment failure; in-hospital mortality	Adequate	Yes	NR	Yes	Adequate	Yes	Inadequate
L'Her et al. 2004 [22]	France: ED	89	SMT vs CPAP	Meeting criteria for ETI or death during 48 h follow-up; in-hospital mortality	Adequate	Yes	NR	Yes	Adequate	Yes	Adequate
Masip et al. 2000 [13]	Spain: ED and ICU	37	SMT vs NPPV	Meeting criteria for ETI during 10 h follow-up; in-hospital mortality; AMI incidence	Adequate	Yes	No	Yes	Uncertain	Yes	Adequate
Levitt et al. 2001 [14]	USA: ED	38	SMT vs NPPV	ETI decided by attending physician during 24 h follow-up; in-hospital mortality; AMI incidence.	Adequate	Yes	NR	Uncertain	Uncertain	Yes	Uncertain
Nava et al. 2003 [19]	Italy: ED	130	SMT vs NPPV	Meeting criteria for ETI during 24 h follow-up; in-hospital mortality; AMI incidence	Adequate	Yes	NR	Yes	Adequate	Yes	Adequate
Mehta et al. 1997 [25]	USA: ED	27	CPAP vs NPPV	ETI decided by attending physician during 24 h follow-up; in-hospital mortality; AMI incidence	Adequate	Yes	Yesh	Yes	Adequate	Yes	Uncertain
Martin-Bermudez et al. 2002 [17]	Spain: ED	80	CPAP vs NPPV	Meeting criteria for ETI during 24 h follow-up; in-hospital mortality; AMI incidence	Uncertain	Yes	NR	Uncertain	Adequate	Yes	Uncertain
Bellone et al. 2004 [20]	Italy: ED	46	CPAP vs NPPV	Meeting criteria for ETI during 36 h follow-up; in-hospital mortality; AMI incidence	Adequate	Yes	No	Yes	Adequate	Yes	Adequate
Bellone et al. 2005 [24]	Italy: ED	36	CPAP vs NPPV	Meeting criteria for ETI during 36 h follow-up; in-hospital mortality	Adequate	Yes	No	Yes	Adequate	Yes	Adequate
Park et al. 2001 [15]	Brazil: ED	26	SMT vs CPAP vs NPPV	ETI decided by attending physician during 1 h follow-up; in-hospital mortality; AMI incidence	Uncertain	Yes	NR	Yes	Uncertain	Yes	Inadequate
Park et al. 2004 [23]	Brazil: ED	80	SMT vs CPAP vs NPPV	ETI decided by attending physician during 24 h follow-up; in-hospital mortality; AMI incidence	Adequate	Yes	NR	Yes	Adequate	Yes	Uncertain
Crane et al. 2004 [21]	UK: ED	60	SMT vs CPAP vs NPPV	Meeting criteria for ETI during 2 h follow-up; in-hospital mortality; AMI incidence	Adequate	Yes	No	Yes	Adequate	Yes	Adequate

^aClassified as: adequate, inadequate or uncertain. ^bClassified as: yes, if inclusion and exclusion criteria for participants are adequately reported; no, if selection criteria are not reported. ^cClassified as: yes, for articles that implemented blinding at any level; no, for articles reporting not being able to implement blinding of interventions at any level; not reported (NR), for articles that do not make any mention to blinding. ^dClassified as: yes, if there was an attempt to standardize treatment and care besides the assigned interventions; no, if no attempt to standardize was applied; uncertain, if it was not clearly reported. ^eClassified as: adequate; inadequate; uncertain. ^fClassified as: yes; no; not reported (NR). ^gClassified as: adequate if objective criteria for endotracheal intubation were defined; inadequate if the criteria were not defined; and uncertain if criteria application was unclear (for example, depending on attending physician). ^hIn this study physicians, nurses and patients were blinded by covering the control panel on the device. AMI, acute myocardial infarction; CPAP, continuous positive airway pressure; CU, coronary unit; ED, emergency department; ETI, endotracheal intubation; HDU, high dependency unit; ICU, intensive care unit; NPPV, non-invasive pressure ventilation; SMT, standard medical therapy.