Gao 2010.
| Study characteristics | |||
| Patient sampling | All patients diagnosed with an acute exacerbation of COPD during the study period were included. No exclusion criteria recorded. Prospective study | ||
| Patient characteristics and setting | October 2006 to November 2008; No. 150 Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), China. There are 1100 beds in this hospital, with 60 beds in the respiratory diseases department No haematological or transplant patients; COPD patients |
||
| Index tests | The detection of GM antigen by the Platelia Aspergillus EIA test (Bio‐Rad Laboratories, Marnes, France) was carried out according to the manufacturer's instructions. A sample was considered positive if the index was ≥ 1.5 | ||
| Target condition and reference standard(s) | The EORTC/MSG (European Organization for the Treatment of Cancer/Mycoses Study Group) guidelines for IPA were not designed for patient categories other than cancer patients and bone marrow transplant recipients. One important at‐risk group, patients with COPD, was not included in this definition. So we used modified IPA definitions. Reference to De Pauw 2008. Platelia was included in the criteria |
||
| Flow and timing | No information about time intervals; all patients were classified according to the EORTC criteria; all patients were included in the analyses | ||
| Comparative | |||
| No patients per category | 2 had proven IPA, 3 had probable IPA and 254 patients did not have IPA; the remaining 2 patients had possible IPA | ||
| Notes | No conflicts of interest 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 | High | ||
| 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 | ||
| Unclear | Unclear | ||
| 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? | No | ||
| High | Unclear | ||
| 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 | |||