TABLE 6.

The underlying causes of heterogeneity of the diagnostic meta‐analysis by meta‐regression test

Meta‐regression variables	PDOR (95% CI)	P value
BC case number (≥100 vs <100)	0.89 (0.22‐3.58)	.8577
Control number (≥100 vs <100)	0.75 (0.10‐5.53)	.7362
Control type (healthy control vs adjacent noncancer tissue)	3.96 (0.69‐22.84)	.1032
CircRNA expression level (increased vs decreased)	1.72 (0.77‐3.83)	.1504
Study quality (QUADAS score ≥4 vs <4)	1.96 (0.17‐22.90)	.5281

Abbreviations: BC, breast cancer; PDOR, pooled diagnostic odds ratio; QUADAS, Quality Assessment for Studies of Diagnostic Accuracy.