TABLE 4.

Quality assessment using the NIH case series assessment tool

First author	Was the study question or objective clearly stated?	Study population clearly and fully described including a case definition	Cases consecutive	Subjects comparable	Intervention clearly described	Outcome measured clearly defined, valid, reliable and implemented consistently	Was length of follow‐up adequate?	Statistical methods well describe?	Were results well described?	Overall rating
Dalal	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	NA	Yes		Good
de‐Mederios	Yes	NA	NA	NA	Yes	Yes	Yes	NA	Yes		Good
Elsaie	Yes	Yes	CD	CD	Yes	Yes	Yes	NA	Yes		Fair
Freeman	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Good
Freeman	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		Good
Gianotti	Yes	No	CD	CD	Yes	Yes	Yes	NA	Yes		Good
Hassan	Yes	Yes	NA	NA	Yes	Yes	CD	NA	Yes		Fair
Ho	Yes	No	CD	CD	Yes	No	CD	NA	Yes		Fair
Khurana	Yes	No	NA	NA	CD	Yes	CD	NA	Yes		Fair
Lagziel	Yes	Yes	NA	NA	Yes	Yes	Yes	NA	Yes		Good
Lorenzo‐Villaba	Yes	Yes	CD	CD	Yes	Yes	CD	NA	Yes		Fair
Magro	Yes	Yes	CD	CD	Yes	Yes	Yes	NA	Yes		Good
Papamichalis	Yes	Yes	NA	NA	Yes	Yes	Yes	NA	Yes		Good
Putra	Yes	Yes	NA	NA	Yes	Yes	CD	NA	Yes		Fair
Rivera‐Oyola	Yes	No	NA	NA	CD	Yes	CD	NA	Yes		Fair
Sachdeva	Yes	No	CD	CD	Yes	No	CD	NA	Yes		Fair
Sakaida	Yes	No	NA	NA	CD	Yes	CD	NA	Yes		Fair
Sanchez	Yes	No	NA	NA	Yes	Yes	CD	NA	Yes		Good
Shanshal	No	Yes	NA	NA	Yes	No	CD	NA	Yes		Fair
Suter	Yes	Yes	NA	NA	Yes	Yes	Yes	NA	Yes		Good