Ley 2011.

Study characteristics
Patient sampling	Retrospective multi‐centre study Healthcare settings: secondary Point of recruitment: both inpatient and outpatient
Patient characteristics and setting	Countries: Tanzania Level of typhoid endemicity (Crump 2004): medium Age: children between the ages of 2 months and 14 years Gender distribution: unclear Entry criteria: selected samples from a fever surveillance study Surveillance study entry criteria: fever > 3 days or those matching set clinical severity criteria
Index tests	TUBEX
Target condition and reference standard(s)	Target condition:Salmonella Typhi Reference standard(s): peripheral blood culture
Flow and timing	Retrospective analysis on stored samples. Timing unclear.
Comparative
Notes	Only blood culture positive patients included. Samples from 2 different patient populations
Methodological quality
Item	Authors' judgement	Risk of bias	Applicability concerns
DOMAIN 1: Patient Selection
Was a consecutive or random sample of patients enrolled?	No
Was a case‐control design avoided?	No
Did the study avoid inappropriate exclusions?	Yes
		High	Low
DOMAIN 2: Index Test All tests
Were the index test results interpreted without knowledge of the results of the reference standard?	Yes
If a threshold was used, was it pre‐specified?	Yes
		Low	Low
DOMAIN 3: Reference Standard
Is the reference standards likely to correctly classify the target condition?	No
Were the reference standard results interpreted without knowledge of the results of the index tests?	Yes
		Low	Low
DOMAIN 4: Flow and Timing
Was there an appropriate interval between index test and reference standard?	Unclear
Did all patients receive the same reference standard?	Yes
Were all patients included in the analysis?	No
		Low