Sen 2008b.

Study characteristics
Patient sampling	Retrospective cross‐sectional study
Patient characteristics and setting	77 adult patients with alcoholic cirrhosis. Child A: not reported. Setting: tertiary referral centre in UK
Index tests	Platetet count, spleen diameter, and platelet count‐to‐spleen diameter ratio
Target condition and reference standard(s)	Presence of any oesophageal varices. Upper endoscopy
Flow and timing
Comparative
Notes	Research letter
Methodological quality
Item	Authors' judgement	Risk of bias	Applicability concerns
DOMAIN 1: Patient Selection
Was a consecutive or random sample of patients enrolled?	Unclear
Was a case‐control design avoided?	Yes
Did the study avoid inappropriate exclusions?	Yes
		Unclear	Low
DOMAIN 2: Index Test Platelet count
Were the index test results interpreted without knowledge of the results of the reference standard?	Unclear
If a threshold was used, was it pre‐specified?	No
		High	Low
DOMAIN 2: Index Test Platelet count to spleen length ratio
Were the index test results interpreted without knowledge of the results of the reference standard?	Unclear
If a threshold was used, was it pre‐specified?	No
		High	Low
DOMAIN 2: Index Test Spleen length
Were the index test results interpreted without knowledge of the results of the reference standard?	Unclear
If a threshold was used, was it pre‐specified?	No
		High	Low
DOMAIN 3: Reference Standard
Is the reference standards likely to correctly classify the target condition?	Yes
Were the reference standard results interpreted without knowledge of the results of the index tests?	Unclear
		Unclear	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?	Yes
		Unclear