1. Rajat Kalra, MBChB1, Pankaj Arora, MD, FAHA2, Charity Morgan, PhD3,
Journal of Nuclear Cardiology | Official Journal of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology
Conducting and Interpreting High-Quality Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses
Rajat Kalra, MBChB1, Pankaj Arora, MD, FAHA2, Charity Morgan, PhD3,
Fadi G. Hage, MD, FASH, FACC, FASNC2,4, Ami E. Iskandrian, MD, MACC2, and Navkaranbir S. Bajaj, MD2,3
 1 Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, U.S.A.
2 Division of Cardiovascular Disease, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, U.S.A.
3 Department of Biostatistics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, U.S.A.
4 Section of Cardiology, Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, AL
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2. Journal of Nuclear Cardiology | Official Journal of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology
BACKGROUND
1-Systematic reviews (SR) and meta-analyses (MA) have a prominent role in clinical literature. 2-Just like any other form of clinical research, both techniques have been subject to criticisms about their validity and place in clinical evidence-based medicine. 3-Hence we seek to outline what SR and MA can offer clinicians and discuss the modern-day methodological standards for conducting these studies.
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3. METHODS Study type: Narrative review
Journal of Nuclear Cardiology | Official Journal of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology
METHODS
Study type: Narrative review
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4. Insert a key table or a key figure If figure, insert legend
Journal of Nuclear Cardiology | Official Journal of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology
RESULTS
Insert a key table or a key figure If figure, insert legend
Lower confidence limit
Upper confidence limit
Grey box proportional to weight of study
Black marker effect estimate of individual study
Pooled study estimate diamond 95% CI
Pooled study estimate
Line of no effect
Adapted with permissions from: J Am Heart Assoc Dec 14;4(12)
Example of Forest Plot
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5. Journal of Nuclear Cardiology | Official Journal of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology
CONCLUSIONS
1- SR and MA are important methods of critically appraising, summarizing, and further analyzing large topics in an organized fashion. 2- In turn, these tools can be used to provide summary estimates and generate new hypotheses to address important clinical controversies. 3- We detail the basic rationale, methodology, and statistical techniques used in their composition.
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