It incorporates several data sources, and enables researchers to maximize comparability by choosing data based on the criteria of comparability, but potentially leads to a risk of not piecing together the information in a meaningful way [ 13, 14].
We excluded 13 datasets contributing 185 TNBC cases from the discovery cohort because they did not fulfill our criteria of comparability of the microarray data (for details see Additional file 4, Supplementary Methods Section 1 and Additional file 1, Supplementary Figure S2).
Unfortunately, the Cochrane review by Walker [ 124] assessing the impact of antibiotic treatment of syphilis in pregnancy did not report perinatal mortality outcomes, as none of the studies identified (N = 29) met the review's eligibility criteria for comparability.
Study quality was judged on the selection criteria of participants, comparability of cases and controls, and exposure or outcome assessment.
Based on the NOS, case control studies were judged based on three broad perspectives: selection of study groups (1 criterion), comparability of study groups (4 criteria), and ascertainment of outcome of interest (3 criteria).
For this reason, a minimum of 5% of each vigilance (sub-) stage was set as a further inclusion criterion for the comparability of RT differences.
The current CT-based International Workshop Criteria (IWC) still have the main advantage of representing standardized criteria allowing comparability of clinical trials in patients with lymphoma.
Uniformly accepted criteria to assess the clinical relevance of comparability of monitoring techniques and parameters are lacking.
It could be argued that the choice of matching criteria limited the comparability of study participants, as additional or alternative criteria could have been used.
Individual experiences need to be reworked to fit such criteria as comparability and objectivity.
This indicates a reasonable degree of comparability between the studies that used similar designs, and the same inclusion criteria to recruit a homogenous volunteer group (healthy males).
