This can be considered a systematic review of diagnostic test accuracy, with insulin deficiency representing the outcome and clinical characteristics representing the predictors.
162 There is evidence that this still does not occur as it should and that authors of primary studies do not consider a systematic review when they design their studies.
Although this should not be considered a systematic review as judgement was used to select included articles, a systematic search strategy using the search term "differential item functioning" was employed to identify relevant articles using the electronic databases MEDLINE, EMBASE and Web of Knowledge.
One could consider using a systematic review to try and answer the controversial challenges cited in the abstract; however, this approach would not work historically, and from a contemporary standpoint, so very few, if any, published studies qualify to fit into the higher levels of the hierarchy of scientific evidence that the essential issues would not be addressed (Gutmann & Solomon 2009).
Another approach is to consider conducting a systematic review as a "first step" to better understand complex evidence (or to conduct them in parallel with novel reviews), particularly for evidence generated from philosophy and the social sciences.
Given the complexity of the IOGA concept and the possible contributions of the clinical and organisational domains to its development, we considered that a systematic review of the literature integrating these perspectives was needed.
Contradictory results have been reported [ 34], but considering a recent systematic review, a previous TST may boost subsequent IFN-γ responses as the antigens ESAT-6 and CFP-10 are also present in PPD [ 35].
Although we focus on a minimal list of items to consider when reporting a systematic review, we indicate places where additional information is desirable to improve transparency of the review process.
Consider, for instance, a systematic review assessing paroxetine vs placebo for the treatment of major depression in adults, which included 34 randomized trials employing the HRSD (n = 30) and the MADRS (n = 4) [ 27].
Local decisions need to consider local factors however a systematic review of the literature should not be duplicated in each health service.
A systematic review considering the whole spectrum (i.e. all subtypes) of chronic depressions and a wide variety of available treatment options is still missing.
