Enrico Martin

138 Chapter 6 Items Sub-category questions Explanation Answers % Did patients receive the same reference standard? Patients receiving the same reference standard during the duration of the study Unclear, not described Pathology criteria changed during patient follow-up + ? - Were all patients included in the analysis? Clearly described follow-up protocol Lack of clearly described follow-up protocol + - Could the patient flow have introduced bias? Loss to follow-up favoring subgroups Unclearly described flowchart or follow-up of included patients Clearly described flowchart and follow-up of included patients High risk Unclear Low risk Ac: patient selection Is there concern that the included patients do not match the review question? Risk of bias for patient selection considered “high risk” or studies including patients with non-random sample of nerve sheath tumors, or studies only including patients with histologically confirmed diagnosis of bpnsts Risk of bias for patient selection considered “unclear”, or studies with an unclearly described selection procedure for inclusion of patients Risk of bias for patient selection considered “low risk” and providing a clear selection procedure with inclusion criteria of included patients High risk Unclear Low risk Ac: index test Is there concern that the index test, its conduct, or interpretation differ from the review question? Risk of bias for index test considered ”high risk” Risk of bias for index test considered ”unclear” Risk of bias for index test considered ”low risk” High risk Unclear Low risk Ac: reference standard Is there concern that the target condition as defined by the reference standard does not match the review question? Risk of bias for reference standard considered “high risk” Risk of bias for reference standard considered “unclear”, or no description of follow-up or biopsy procedure was provided Risk of bias for reference standard considered “low risk” and a clear description of follow-up or biopsy procedure was provided High risk Unclear Low risk Modified Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2 tool. Questions used per category and explanatory note are provided. Abbreviations: Ac: applicability concerns, MRI: magnetic resonance imaging, PET-CT: positron emission tomography – computed tomography, Rob: risk of bias, ROC: receiver operating characteristic.