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. 2021 May 24;2021(5):CD011817. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD011817.pub2
Studies Study characteristics: Target population / Data Specifications / Serum Ferritin used threshold (SFth) Bone marrow equal to 0 group (BM = 0)
(or as defined by author as iron‐depleted or diseased) Bone marrow 1 or more group (BM = 1+)
(or as defined by author as iron‐repleted or non‐diseased) BM = 0 vs BM = 1+ comparison Serum ferritin vs BM association
TP+FN=n1* Mean (Standard deviation) serum ferritin (μg/L) Range value for serum ferritin; other measures (μg/L) FP+TN=n2* Mean (Standard deviation) serum ferritin (μg/L) Range value for serum ferritin; other measures (μg/L) Mean difference (μg/L) in serum ferritin concentration: iron‐repleted group mean minus the iron‐depleted group mean Pearson's correlation
(r), Regression coefficient R2, P‐value
Aguilar 2012 Non‐healthy with Infectious diseases (malaria, tuberculosis, and other), and anaemia, both sexes, infants 6 to 59 months, attending the MDH emergency department in a rural hospital.
Sens, spec, TP, FN, FP, and TN given for WHO threshold value. Sens and spec presented for two alternative thresholds.
SFth=30.		 21+117=138     0+35=35        
Jonker 2013 Non‐healthy with high incidence of infectious diseases (malaria, tuberculosis, and other), and severely anaemic, both sexes, children from 6 to 60 months.
Specificity, sensitivity, D+, and D‐ for WHO threshold.
SFth=30.		 18+24=42     4+191=195        
Meira 2005 Non‐healthy with HIV and blood disorders, both sexes, children from 6 to 59 months.
Patient's data available to compute TP, FN, FP, and TN for WHO threshold.
SFth=30.		 1+2=3 32.8 (15.2) 17 to 47; median:
34.5 0+3=3 117.7 (89.1) 51 to 219; median:
(82.6) 84.9  
Phiri 2009 Non‐healthy and severely anaemic children in high infection pressure area (malaria endemic), both sexes, children with mean age of 20 months.
Specificity, sensitivity, TP, FN, FP, and TN given for WHO threshold value, and specificity, sensitivity, D+, D‐, and accuracy for authors proposed threshold.
SFth=273.		 18+6=24     19+60=79        
*Iron‐depleted sample size (n1) could be different to the sum of TP + FN because the studies generally reported the numbers separately (some reasons were exclusion of values, subgroups etc.). Similarly, for iron‐repleted sample size (n2) and the corresponding sum FP + TN.