Table 1.

Literature searches ^a

PAPERS CITED BY PREVIOUS REVIEW [4]
Publications examined 27	→ Rejects (reason 1) 2
↓
Publications accepted (primary results) 25b
MEDLINE SEARCH 6TH July 2012
New abstracts examined 615	→ Rejects - total 500
↓	Reason 1 – 442; Reason 3 – 40; Reason 5 – 7; Reason 6 – 1; Reason 7 – 7; Reason 8 – 3;
Publications examined 115c	→ Rejects – total 91
↓	Reason 1 – 80; Reason 3 – 2; Reason 5 – 1; Reason 6 – 1; Reason 7 – 5; Reason 8 – 2
Publications accepted – total 24c
Primary results 19c
Reviews 5
Cochrane search 6th August 2012
New abstracts examined 13	→ Rejects – total 7
↓	Reason 1 – 5; Reason 8 – 2
New publications examined 6d	→ Rejects (reason 1) 6
SECONDARY REFERENCES 15th August 2012e
New abstracts examined 2	→ Rejects (reason 1) 1
↓
New publications examined 1	→ Rejects (reason 1) 1
INFORMAL SEARCHING (including WBC review)
New publications examined 4
↓
New publications accepted – total 4
Primary results 3
Reviews 1
Total primary publications accepted – 47

^aReasons for rejection correspond to study inclusion/exclusion criteria (see Methods).

^bIncludes one paper [11] where HDL-C data not used in the earlier review [4].

^cIncludes one paper [12] initially rejected on the basis of the abstract but found to be relevant when examined for a separate review of WBC.

^dOne paper could not be adequately identified, but another paper [13] by the same author and apparently reporting the same study was substituted.

^eChecking continued until no new publications were identified.