Antibiotics for eradicating meningococcal carriages: Network meta-analysis and investigation of evidence inconsistency

Figure 1 Network of comparisons antibiotics for preventing meningococcal infections. The lines that connect antibiotics refer the direct comparison of two antibiotics. The number beside a line is the number of trials that directly compared the two antibiotics lined by the line.

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Figure 2 Funnel plot - estimated effects (log odds ratio) of antibiotics in placebo-controlled studies. Funnel plot asymmetry was not statistically significant (Harbord’s test for small study effects P = 0.600).

Figure 3 Inconsistencies (and 95%CIs) between direct and indirect estimates for comparisons with closed loops. logROR: 0 indicates no difference between the direct and indirect estimates.

Figure 4 Rifampin vs ciprofloxacin for preventing meningococcal infections. The outcome is the failure to eradicate at 1 wk. Pooled direct and indirect estimates were the results of mixed treatment comparison, and other results were from DerSimonian-Laird meta-analyses.

Figure 5 Proportions of failure to eradicate in individual arms of trials for the direct and indirect comparison of rifampin and ciprofloxacin.