A network meta-analysis can identify external influences on the mean effect of a specific comparison that otherwise would have remained unreported with standard pairwise meta-analytical methods.
However, bias against the publication of negative results potentially means that many such examples of a lack of dimorphism have remained unreported.
Indeed, the lack of surgical characterization of patient subgroups has been a major concern in clinical trials of novel treatment approaches in endometriosis, many of which have been unsuccessful or have remained unreported (44, 45).
The LTT will be hard to detect, being 1/3 of the amplitude of that seen in kinetic unfolding systems and representing the unfolding only of imperfect strands; this is possibly why LTTs have remained unreported for so long.
However, a significant number of unrecorded cases is likely to have occurred have probably remained unreported [ 7].
When the Guardian revealed extensive police torture, which had remained largely unreported in Greece, the government threatened to sue the newspaper and sacked two senior TV journalists who reminded their audience that this was an idle threat.
Alternatively, infected domestic animals in these areas may have remained undetected or unreported.
Moreover, residual heterogeneity may have remained unexplained due to some unmeasured or unreported study characteristics, which is inherent to a meta-analysis based on published data.
Featured image: Getty/Phil ASeedy.
