Busca 2006.

Study characteristics
Patient sampling	Prospective; consecutive series of patients "Between February 2002 and October 2004, all adult patients transplanted at our institution were analyzed"
Patient characteristics and setting	74 participants Age ranged from 19 to 70 years No information about gender Italy All adult patients undergoing allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation Inpatients; monitoring clinical course Representative spectrum: all adult patients undergoing allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation were analysed with the commercially available galactomannan sandwich‐ELISA assay Both inpatients and outpatients (outpatients only where possible)
Index tests	Platelia. Serum samples were taken twice weekly; galactomannan positivity was defined as an ODI of 1.0 or higher in 2 subsequent sera
Target condition and reference standard(s)	Invasive aspergillosis, according to the EORTC criteria (Ascioglu 2002) Incorporation avoided? Yes: invasive fungal infections were classified according to the EORTC/MSG case definitions Galactomannan results were excluded as microbiologic criteria Acceptable reference standard? Yes: invasive fungal infections were classified according to the EORTC/MSG case definitions (Ascioglu 2002). Galactomannan results were excluded as microbiologic criteria
Flow and timing	Timing not reported Partial verification avoided: all patients were classified according to the reference criteria No withdrawals: the study included all patients = 74; the results for all 74 patients were given No uninterpretable results: the study included all patients = 74; the results for all 74 patients were given in terms of negative or positive result, so no uninterpretable results
Comparative
No patients per category	2 proven, 0 probable, 7 possible, 65 no IA
Notes	Sponsoring: not reported
Methodological quality
Item	Authors' judgement	Risk of bias	Applicability concerns
DOMAIN 1: Patient Selection
Was a consecutive or random sample of patients enrolled?	Yes
Was a case‐control design avoided?	Yes
Did the study avoid inappropriate exclusions?	Unclear
		Low	Low
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?	Yes
		Low	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