The Cochrane Methodology Register (CMR) is a bibliography of publications that report on methods used in the conduct of controlled trials. It includes journal articles, books, and conference proceedings, and the content is sourced from MEDLINE and hand searches. CMR contains studies of methods used in reviews and more general methodological studies that could be relevant to anyone preparing systematic reviews. CMR records contain the title of the article, information on where it was published (bibliographic details), and, in some cases, a summary of the article. They do not contain the full text of the article.
The CMR was produced by the Cochrane UK, until 31st May 2012. There are currently no plans to reinstate the CMR and it is not receiving updates.* If you have any queries, please contact the Cochrane Community Service Team (support@cochrane.org).
The Publishers, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, thanks Update Software for the continued use of their data formats in the Cochrane Methodology Register (CMR).
*Last update in January 2019.
| Title | Searching for diagnostic test accuracy studies: an application to screening for open angle glaucoma (OAG) [abstract] |
| Authors | Fraser C, Mowatt G, Siddiqui R, Burr J |
| Source | XIV Cochrane Colloquium; 2006 October 23-26; Dublin, Ireland. |
| Date of publication | 2006 |
| Pages | 88 |
| Abstract | Background: A systematic review of glaucoma diagnostic test accuracy was undertaken as part of a health technology assessment of the effectiveness of OAG screening. The assessment also required systematic reviews of epidemiology, disease progression and economic evaluations. Extensive literature searching, using separate sets of searches for each review, was undertaken. For diagnostic test accuracy, databases searched included MEDLINE, EMBASE, Science Citation Index, BIOSIS, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), HMIC (Health Management Information Consortium) and full text searching of selected ophthalmology journals. In total, 4839 reports were identified of which 636 were selected for full text assessment with 100 meeting the initial inclusion criteria. Objectives: To assess the contribution of a MEDLINE/EMBASE search, incorporating a diagnostic filter, in identifying studies of diagnostic test accuracy. Methods: The MEDLINE search strategy included a filter, to identify diagnostic test accuracy studies, that had been previously developed and validated against gold standards derived from handsearching and was used in conjunction with search terms relating to glaucoma and the relevant diagnostic tests (n=14). The diagnostic filter was translated for EMBASE. Results: The inclusion of the diagnostic filter reduced the number of hits in the MEDLINE/EMBASE deduplicated search by 69.9% (from 13,870 to 4159). Of the 97 relevant reports, indexed in MEDLINE and/or EMBASE, 89 were retrieved by searching and screening of the MEDLINE/EMBASE results. Three were excluded by the search (two due to the filter) and five were missed from the screening of titles and abstracts. These losses were attributable to poor reporting or absence of abstracts. Additional reports were identified from other searches for the review (seven) or in the course of identifying reports for the epidemiology review (four). Conclusions: Despite extensive searching, only six reports were not identified by the MEDLINE/EMBASE search (three not indexed, three missed). The filter considerably reduced the retrievals with the loss of only two reports attributable to its use. |
| CMR keywords | CMR: Evaluation methodology - diagnostic test accuracy - search strategies; CMRA5.1 |
| Correspondence address | Health Services Research Unit, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK. c.fraser@abdn.ac.uk |
| Reference type | Journal article |