Table 1. Characteristics of the included studies.
| Author | Year | County | Sample type | Reference | TP | FP | FN | TN | Decontaminate method | Sample condition | Homogenisation | SR | Patient selection method |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Held, M.a | 2014 | South Africa | spinal tissue | culture | 25 | 9 | 2 | 35 | No | fresh | Mechanical | 3:1 | consecutive |
| Held, M.b | 2014 | South Africa | spinal tissue | crs | 44 | 1 | 2 | 25 | No | fresh | Mechanical | 3:1 | consecutive |
| Litao Li | 2014 | China | spinal tissue or pus | culture | 63 | 26 | 1 | 50 | NALC-NaOH | frozen | Mechanical | - | Convenience |
| Gu,Y.a | 2015 | China | bone and joint pus | crs | 41 | 0 | 9 | 10 | No | fresh | No | 2:1 | Convenience |
| Gu,Y.b | 2015 | China | bone and joint pus | culture | 24 | 17 | 0 | 19 | No | fresh | No | 2:1 | Convenience |
| Kim, Y. W.a | 2015 | South Korea | joint fluid | culture | 3 | 0 | 0 | 280 | NALC-NaOH | frozen | No | - | consecutive |
| Kim, Y. W.b | 2015 | South Korea | joint fluid | crs | 3 | 0 | 0 | 280 | NALC-NaOH | frozen | No | - | consecutive |
| Hongmei Chen | 2015 | China | bone and joint pus | crs | 100 | 0 | 30 | 9 | No | fresh | No | - | Convenience |
| Wenyun Jia | 2015 | China | bone and joint pus | crs | 46 | 1 | 3 | 31 | No | fresh | No | 2:1 | Convenience |
| Held, M. | 2016 | South Africa | bone and joint tissue | crs | 17 | 0 | 6 | 86 | No | fresh | No | 3:1 | consecutive |
| Zhen Li.a | 2016 | China | bone and joint tissue or pus | crs | 199 | 0 | 54 | 59 | NALC-NaOH | fresh | Mechanical | 2:1 | Convenience |
| Zhen Li.b | 2016 | China | bone and joint tissue or pus | culture | 121 | 78 | 1 | 112 | NALC-NaOH | fresh | Mechanical | 2:1 | Convenience |
| Kai Tang | 2016 | China | knee joint fluid | crs | 20 | 2 | 9 | 18 | No | fresh | No | 2:1 | consecutive |
| Arockiaraj, J.a | 2017 | India | spinal tissue or pus | crs | 180 | 0 | 73 | 85 | NALC-NaOH | fresh | No | - | Convenience |
| Arockiaraj, J.b | 2017 | India | spinal tissue or pus | culture | 99 | 82 | 13 | 144 | NALC-NaOH | fresh | No | - | Convenience |
| Held, M. | 2017 | South Africa | bone and joint tissue | crs | 84 | 1 | 7 | 114 | No | fresh | No | 3:1 | consecutive |
| Jin, Y. H. | 2017 | China | spinal pus | crs | 63 | 0 | 18 | 28 | No | fresh | Mechanical | 2:1 | Convenience |
| Li, Y. | 2017 | China | joint fluid | culture | 26 | 2 | 1 | 6 | No | fresh | No | 2:1 | Convenience |
| Massi, M. N. | 2017 | Indonesia | vertebral bone tissues. | culture | 22 | 40 | 0 | 8 | NALC-NaOH | fresh | No | 2:1 | Convenience |
| Tang, L. | 2017 | China | spinal tissue or pus | culture | 96 | 57 | 3 | 67 | NALC-NaOH | frozen | No | 3:1 | Convenience |
| Weijie Dong | 2017 | China | bone and joint tissue | crs | 196 | 0 | 55 | 21 | NALC-NaOH | fresh | Mechanical | 2:1 | Convenience |
| Zheng Zhou | 2017 | China | spinal tissue | crs | 55 | 1 | 17 | 19 | No | fresh | Mechanical | 2:1 | Convenience |
| Zhujun Zhu | 2017 | China | bone and joint pus | crs | 55 | 1 | 12 | 29 | No | fresh | Mechanical | 2:1 | Convenience |
| Khan, A. S.a | 2018 | Pakistan | joint fluid | culture | 6 | 0 | 1 | 6 | No | fresh | No | - | Convenience |
| Khan, A. S.b | 2018 | Pakistan | Bone marrow | culture | 3 | 0 | 3 | 30 | No | fresh | No | - | Convenience |
| Li, Y. | 2018 | China | bone and joint pus | crs | 24 | 0 | 12 | 13 | NALC-NaOH | fresh | Mechanical | 2:1 | consecutive |
| Perez-Risco, D. | 2018 | Spain | bone and joint tissue or pus | culture | 14 | 0 | 3 | 23 | No | frozen | No | 2:1 | Convenience |
| Tang, Y. | 2018 | China | joint pus | crs | 61 | 0 | 25 | 30 | No | fresh | No | Convenience | |
| Wang, G. | 2018 | China | spinal pus | crs | 272 | 0 | 47 | 99 | NALC-NaOH | fresh | No | 2:1 | Convenience |
| Tingting Hou | 2018 | China | spinal tissue | crs | 155 | 4 | 37 | 46 | NALC-NaOH | fresh | Mechanical | 2:1.5 | Convenience |
| Chenguang Jia | 2018 | China | spinal pus | culture | 69 | 8 | 1 | 90 | - | frozen | No | 1.5:1 | Convenience |
| Hongwei Liu.a | 2018 | China | bone and joint pus | crs | 84 | 2 | 11 | 32 | No | fresh | Mechanical | 2:1 | Convenience |
| Hongwei Liu.b | 2018 | China | bone and joint pus | culture | 30 | 54 | 0 | 11 | No | fresh | Mechanical | 2:1 | Convenience |
CRS, composite reference standard; TP, true positive; FP, false positive; FN, false negative; TN, true negative; SR, sample ratio