Assessment by meta-analysis of interferon-gamma for the diagnosis of tuberculous peritonitis

Table 3 Weighted meta-regression of the effects of study design methods and methodological quality on diagnostic accuracy of interferon-gamma assays

Covariate	Studies	Coefficient	RDOR (95%CI)	P
Consecutive or random	6	-	-	-
Prospective	6	-	-	-
Cross-sectional design	1	-1.763	0.17 (0.00, 2053.55)	0.593
Blinded design	2	-0.649	0.52 (0.01, 31.46)	0.649
Methods
RIA	2	-0.815	0.44 (0.01, 26.58)	0.571
ELISA	4
QUADAS ≥ 10	5	-2.137	0.12 (0.00, 98.54)	0.387
STARD ≥ 13	5	-2.137	0.12 (0.00, 98.55)	0.387

ELISA: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; RIA: Radioimmunoassay; STARD: Standards for Reporting Diagnostic Accuracy, maximum score 25, guidelines that aim to improve the quality of reporting in diagnostic studies; QUADAS: Quality Assessment for Studies of Diagnostic Accuracy, appraisal by use of empirical evidence, maximum score 14, expert opinion and formal consensus to assess the quality of primary studies of diagnostic accuracy; RDOR: Relative diagnostic odds ratio.