Many studies about serum IgG4 for the diagnosis of IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) have been reported. However, these studies had relatively small sample sizes and the diagnostic accuracy values varied much between them.The aim of this study was to perform a meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic value of serum IgG4 for IgG4-RD.We conducted a search of relevant articles using MEDLINE, EMBASE, ...

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of the ImmunoCyt test compared with urine cytology in detecting bladder cancer. A systematic literature search was performed to locate all publications reporting on the diagnostic accuracy of the ImmunoCyt test for bladder cancer. Data were extracted from 2×2 tables or calculated from reported accuracy data. Collected data were m...

BACKGROUND A rule-based system, the Braden Scale based Automated Risk Assessment Tool (BART), was developed to assess risk for pressure ulcer in a previous study. However, the BART illustrated two major areas in need of improvement, which were: 1) the enhancement of decision rules and 2) validation of generalizability to increase performance of BART. OBJECTIVES To enhance decision rules and v...

BACKGROUND Patients in intensive care units are at higher risk for development of pressure ulcers than other patients. In order to prevent pressure ulcers from developing in intensive care patients, risk for development of pressure ulcers must be assessed accurately. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the predictive validity of the Braden scale for assessing risk for development of pressure ulcers in int...

BACKGROUND Bladder cancer (BC) is the fifth most common malignancy worldwide. The expression levels of microRNAs (miRNAs) in urine samples of BC patients have been demonstrated to be different from healthy people. Several studies focusing on the diagnostic value of urinary miRNAs for BC detection have been reported. The aim of this meta-analysis was to access the overall diagnostic accuracy com...

The Braden Scale for Pressure Sore Risk(©) is a screening tool to determine overall risk of pressure ulcer development and estimate severity of specific risk factors for individual residents. Nurses often use the Braden nutrition subscale to screen nursing home (NH) residents for nutritional risk, and then recommend a more comprehensive nutritional assessment as indicated. Secondary data analys...

Many studies have investigated the diagnostic role of circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) in patients with lung cancer; however, the results still remain inconclusive. An updated system review and meta-analysis was necessary to give a comprehensive evaluation of diagnostic role of circulating miRNAs in lung cancer. Eligible studies were searched in electronical databases. The sensitivity and specifi...

BACKGROUND Many studies have investigated whether pleural cholesterol levels can aid in diagnosis of pleural exudates, and the results have varied considerably. To gain a more reliable answer to this question, we meta-analyzed the literature on using pleural cholesterol or the ratio of cholesterol in pleural fluid to cholesterol in serum (P/S cholesterol ratio) as diagnostic tests to help ident...