Closing the Gap between Diagnostic Test Accuracy Reviews and Reporting Guidelines: The PRISMA-Diagnostic Test Accuracy Statement.

Abstract

Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of diagnostic test accuracy (DTA)4 studies are becoming increasingly popular in medical literature, with a steep increase in publications after 1990 (1, 2). Although summaries from DTA reviews are largely used by clinicians and policymakers and frequently form the basis of clinical practice guidelines (3), their reporting is usually incomplete (4). In the December 2018 issue of Clinical Chemistry , Salameh and colleagues evaluate the completeness of reporting of such reviews using a sample of 100 DTA reviews published between October 2017 and January 2018 (5). Although some aspects were frequently reported, the reporting of key methodological practices did not meet the standards for high-quality DTA systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Conducting meta-analyses of DTA studies is generally more complex than meta-analyses of intervention studies, and consequently, comprehensive reporting is often more challenging (6–9). The recent development of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA)-DTA statement (10), which is an extension of the original PRISMA statement (11), is expected to facilitate the transparent and comprehensive reporting of DTA reviews. PRISMA was initially developed for systematic reviews and meta-analyses of intervention studies and therefore was not adequate for use in the context of DTA reviews. PRISMA-DTA was developed on an evidence-based principle following the best practice for the development of reporting guidelines suggested from the Enhancing the Quality and Transparency Of health Research (EQUATOR) group (12). A multidisciplinary group of 24 experts in diagnostic accuracy research and systematic review methods, journal editors, funders, and end-users of DTA reviews was involved. Having the original PRISMA guidelines as starting point, the group identified items that needed to be added, removed, or modified for the case of DTA …