The Quality of Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies of Optical Coherence Tomography in Glaucoma
Received 28 April 2006; received in revised form 17 November 2006; accepted 28 November 2006. published online 16 April 2007.
Objective
To evaluate the quality of reporting of diagnostic accuracy studies using optical coherence tomography (OCT) in glaucoma.
Design
Descriptive series of published studies.
Participants
Published studies reporting a measure of the diagnostic accuracy of OCT for glaucoma.
Methods
Review of English language papers reporting measures of diagnostic accuracy of OCT for glaucoma. Papers were identified from a Medline literature search performed in June 2006. Articles were appraised using the 25 items provided by the Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy (STARD) initiative. Each item was recorded as full, partially, or not reported.
Main Outcome Measures
Degree of compliance with the STARD guidelines.
Results
Thirty papers were appraised. Eight papers (26.7%) fully reported more than half of the STARD items. The lowest number of fully reported items in a study was 5 and the highest was 17. Descriptions of key aspects of methodology frequently were missing. For example, details of participant sampling (e.g., consecutive or random selection) were described in only 8 (26.7%) of 30 publications. Measures of statistical uncertainty were reported in 18 (60%) of 30 publications. No single STARD item was fully reported by all the papers.
Conclusions
The standard of reporting of diagnostic accuracy studies in glaucoma using OCT was suboptimal. It is hoped that adoption of the STARD guidelines will lead to an improvement in reporting of diagnostic accuracy studies, enabling clearer evidence to be produced for the usefulness of OCT for the diagnosis of glaucoma.
Available online: April 16, 2007.
1Department of Ophthalmology, Grampian University Hospitals National Health Service Trust, Aberdeen, United Kingdom.
2Health Services Research Unit, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, United Kingdom.
Correspondence to Augusto Azuara-Blanco, PhD, FRCS(Ed), The Eye Clinic, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Aberdeen AB25 2ZN, United Kingdom.
Manuscript no. 2006-493.
The authors have no conflicts of interest related to the article.
ABSTRACT