Context: The quality of diagnostic accuracy studies is determined by 2 key factors: risk of bias and comparability. Bias can distort accuracy estimates and poor reporting impairs comparability. While diagnostic accuracy studies for fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) are frequently published, the methodologic issues associated with this body of literature have never been reviewed.
Objective: To assess the quality of design and reporting of diagnostic test accuracy studies in FNAC.
Data sources: Diagnostic accuracy studies were identified by a Medline (US National Library of Medicine) search. Sixty-four FNAC diagnostic test accuracy studies were randomly selected for structured review with the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS) survey. Studies were divided between 2 time periods: 2000-2001 and 2009-2011.
Conclusions: Diagnostic test accuracy studies of FNAC suffer from numerous deficiencies in study design, which negatively affect the reliability of accuracy estimates.