Table 2.

Details of RCTs included/excluded in the MAs, with special reference to calculation of neonatal metabolic acidosis

Meta-analysis RCT	Cochrane MAa Neilson (2012)	European MAb Becker et al. (2012)	American MAc Potti & Berghella (2012)	Stockholm MAd Salmelin et al. (2013)	IPD MAe Schuit et al. (2013)
Plymouth RCT (Westgate et al., 1993)	Included with BDecf data for metabolic acidosis	Included	Included	Excluded because of non-computerized ST analysis method	Excluded because of non-computerized ST analysis method and no access to IPD
Swedish RCT original data (Amer-Wåhlin et al., 2001)	Included with BDecf data for metabolic acidosis	Included but incorrect data used in MA	Included	Included	IPD included
Swedish RCT revised data on metabolic acidosis (Amer-Wåhlin et al., 2011)	Article cited but revised data not used in MA	Article cited but revised data not used in MA	Not included, not cited	Included	IPD included
Finnish RCT original data (Ojala et al., 2006)	Included with BDblood data for metabolic acidosis	Included	Included	Included	IPD included
Awareness of different calculation of metabolic acidosis in Finnish RCT?	No	Yes, but wrong denominators included in MA	No, included BDblood in metabolic acidosis calculation	Yes, but included BDblood in metabolic acidosis calculation	Yes, included Finnish BDecf data in metabolic acidosis calculation
French RCT (Vayssière et al., 2007)	Included with BDecf data for metabolic acidosis	Included	Included	Included	IPD included
Dutch RCT original data (Westerhuis et al., 2010)	Included	Included	Included	Included	IPD included
Dutch RCT revised data on metabolic acidosis BDecf, pH <7.05, pH <7.00 (Westerhuis et al., 2011)	Included with revised BDblood data for metabolic acidosis	Included, correct data used for metabolic acidosis	Included, correct data used for metabolic acidosis but revised article not cited	Included, correct data used for metabolic acidosis	IPD included, correct data used for metabolic acidosis
Number of cases included	15 338	15 352 (≤15 338 included in analyses)	15 303	12 904	12 987

BD_blood, base deficit in blood; BD_ecf, base deficit in extracellular fluid.

^aThe Cochrane review aimed to analyse metabolic acidosis with BD_blood.

^bThe European MA aimed to analyse metabolic acidosis with BD_ecf.

^cThe American MA did not define the fetal compartment for calculation of BD.

^dThe Stockholm MA did not decide to calculate BD_ecf and BD_blood metabolic acidosis separately.

^eThe IPD MA aimed to analyse metabolic acidosis with both BD_ecf and BD_blood without mixing of data.