Table 1.

Characteristics of meta-analyses included in the review (n=53)

Characteristic	N or median	% or IQR
Median number of primary studies	14	[9.5–18.5]
Median number of patients in primary studies	87	[45–182]
Type of test tests under study
Laboratory tests	15	28 %
Image tests	32	60 %
Clinical examination	6	11 %
Meta-analyses looking at more than one test	31	58 %
Method(s) for conducting the meta-analysis†
Univariate analysis only	13	25 %
SROC (Moses Littenberg): linear regression D on S	24	45 %
HSROC (Rutter and Gatsonis): accuracy, scale and threshold parameter	5	9 %
Bivariate random effects model (Reitsma): random effects sens & spec	13	25 %