Table 1.
Characteristics of included studies
| First Author, year [ref] | Country | Study design | Thyroid nodules (n) | Selection criteria of included nodules | Reference standard for malignancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yoon, 2017 [22] | Korea | RCS | 4696 | 10–19 mm, benign cytology, malignant cytology or surgery | Histology or cytology |
| Middleton, 2018 [23] | United States of America | RCS | 3422 | Benign cytology, malignant cytology or surgery | Histology or cytology |
| Gao, 2019 [24] | China (Beijing) | RCS | 2544 | Surgery | Histology |
| Ruan, 2019 [25] | China (Guangzhou) | RCS | 1001 | Benign cytology, malignant cytology or surgery | Histology or cytology |
| Shen, 2019 [26] | China (Shanghai) | RCS | 1612 | >5 mm, surgery | Histology |
| Trimboli, 2019 [27] | France, Switzerland, United Kingdom | RCS | 1058 | ≥5 mm, surgery | Histology |
| Wildman-Tobriner, 2019 [28] | United States of America | RCS | 1425 | Benign cytology, malignant cytology or surgery | Histology |
| Xu, 2019 [29] | China (Nanjing) | RCS | 2465 | Benign cytology or surgery | Histology |
| Zhang, 2020 [30] | China (Shanghai) | RCS | 1271 | ≥5 mm, benign cytology, malignant cytology or surgery | Histology or cytology |
Legend – RCS retrospective cohort study