Allan 2005.

Study characteristics
Patient sampling	Prospective; series of patients with same risk profile; consecutive enrollment not reported. Episode‐based analysis
Patient characteristics and setting	125 participants Age ranged from 16 to 76 years No information about gender Scotland Adults undergoing allogeneic or autologous stem cell transplantation or intensive chemotherapy; no other details reported Representative spectrum? Unclear: adult haemato‐oncology patients
Index tests	Platelia: twice‐weekly screening; different ways of defining positive result reported and different cut‐off values
Target condition and reference standard(s)	Invasive aspergillosis, according to EORTC criteria (Ascioglu 2002) Incorporation avoided? Yes: as the Platelia Aspergillus was being evaluated it was excluded from the EORTC/MSG definitions Acceptable reference standard? Yes: IFI was classified as proven, probable or possible according to the EORTC/MSG definitions (Ascioglu 2002)
Flow and timing	Timing not reported Partial verification avoided? Unclear: it was unclear if really all patients were classified using the reference criteria Withdrawals explained? No: not reported Uninterpretable results reported? No: there were no uninterpretable results
Comparative
No patients per category	0 proven, 1 probable, 11 possible, 113 non‐IA
Notes	Sponsoring: grants from Chief Scientists Office, Scotland, Wyeth Healthcare and Gilead Sciences
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?	Unclear
		Unclear	Unclear
DOMAIN 2: Index Test All tests
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?	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?	Yes
		Low