Importance Cannabis and cannabinoid drugs are widely used to treat disease or alleviate
symptoms, but their efficacy for specific indications is not clear. Objective To conduct a …

In 2003, the QUADAS tool for systematic reviews of diagnostic accuracy studies was
developed. Experience, anecdotal reports, and feedback suggested areas for improvement; …

Background: Patients with substantive bleeding usually require transfusion and/or (re-)
operation. Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion is independently associated with a greater risk of …

Background A quality assessment tool for diagnostic accuracy studies, named QUADAS, has
recently been developed. Although QUADAS has been used in several systematic reviews, …

Assessment of risk of bias is regarded as an essential component of a systematic review on
the effects of an intervention. The most commonly used tool for randomised trials is the …

Studies of diagnostic accuracy require more sophisticated methods for their meta-analysis
than studies of therapeutic interventions. A number of different, and apparently divergent, …

Background: Early recognition and treatment of rheumatoid arthritis is important to prevent
irreversible joint damage. Anti–citrullinated peptide antibodies (ACPA) have been suggested …

Non-randomised studies of the effects of interventions are critical to many areas of healthcare
evaluation, but their results may be biased. It is therefore important to understand and …

The methods and results of systematic reviews should be reported in sufficient detail to allow
users to assess the trustworthiness and applicability of the review findings. The Preferred …

The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement,
published in 2009, was designed to help systematic reviewers transparently report why …