Table 3. Study characteristics according to QUADAS II recommendations to report the risk of bias for patient selection and the concerns for applicability of data collected in manuscripts eligible for the meta-analysis.

	Risk of bias				Applicability concerns
	Patient selection	Index test	Reference standard	Flow and timing	Patient selection	Index test	Reference standard
Anifandis 2015	low	high	low	low	low	low	low
Benchaib 2007	unclear	high	low	high	low	low	low
Boe-Hanson 2006	high	high	low	high	low	low	low
Borini 2006	low	low	low	low	low	low	low
Bungum 2007	low	low	low	low	low	low	low
Check 2005	high	low	low	high	high	low	low
Esbert 2011	low	low	low	unclear	low	high	low
Frydman 2008	low	low	low	low	low	high	low
Gandini 2004	low	low	low	unclear	low	low	low
Guerin 2005	unclear	unclear	low	unclear	unclear	low	low
Henkel 2004	unclear	high	low	high	low	high	low
Huang 2005	unclear	unclear	low	low	low	low	low
Larson-Cook 2003	low	high	low	unclear	low	low	low
Lin 2008	high	high	low	unclear	low	low	low
Micinski 2009	low	low	low	unclear	low	high	low
Muriel 2006	low	high	low	low	low	high	low
Ni 2014	high	low	low	unclear	low	low	low
Niu 2011	high	high	low	low	low	low	low
Oleszczuk 2016	low	low	low	low	low	low	low
Ozmen 2007	unclear	high	low	low	low	low	low
Payne 2005	low	low	low	unclear	low	low	low
Seli 2004	low	high	low	low	low	low	low
Simon 2010	low	high	low	unclear	low	low	low
Simon 2011	low	high	low	high	low	low	low
Simon 2011	low	high	low	high	low	low	low
Simon 2014	low	high	low	high	low	high/low*	low
Speyer 2010	low	unclear	low	high	low	low	low
Virro 2004	low	low	low	low	low	low	low
Wang 2014	low	low	low	low	low	low	low
Yilmaz 2010	low	low	low	low	low	low	low

* high risk for Comet, low risk for SCSA and TUNEL.