He 2011a.

Study characteristics
Patient sampling	The study was conducted in the respiratory intensive care unit (RICU) of Beijing Chao‐Yang Hospital, a teaching facility of the Capital Medical University in Beijing, China. Critically ill stage III or IV COPD patients were included. Samples of all patients included in this study were taken once a day for the first 3 days of their ICU stays and again once a week if the patient remained in the ICU for more than 7 days
Patient characteristics and setting	COPD patients, thus high concern China
Index tests	Consecutive serum samples for GM studies were collected on the first and the fourth days of the patient's admission to the ICU. A sandwich ELISA assay for GM detection (Platelia Aspergillus; Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur, Marnes‐La‐Coquette, France) was used according to the manufacturer's instructions. An optical density (OD) ratio of 0.5 or greater was considered positive. Diagnosis was not based on a serum GM test
Target condition and reference standard(s)	Based on case definitions of the EORTC/MSG, reference to De Pauw 2008. Thus, cases were interpreted as 'proven', 'probable' IPA or non‐IPA Patients from whom Aspergillus was recovered from non‐sterile sites, but who had no other evidence of fungal infections, were considered to be colonised. (ML: 'colonised' is not a classification that is mentioned in the original (2008) EORTC criteria) Diagnosis was not based on a serum GM test
Flow and timing	Timing is unclear/not reported. All patients were classified according to EORTC criteria. Unclear whether all patients were included in analyses. No flow chart reported
Comparative
No patients per category	90 patients; 1 proven and 18 probable
Notes	No conflicts of interest declared or found
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?	Unclear
Did the study avoid inappropriate exclusions?	Unclear
		Unclear	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
		Low	Low
DOMAIN 3: Reference Standard
Is the reference standards likely to correctly classify the target condition?	Unclear
Were the reference standard results interpreted without knowledge of the results of the index tests?	Yes
		Unclear	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?	Unclear
		Unclear