Of 95 subjects receiving mechanical ventilation (MV) for ≥ 72 hours and who were not brain dead, 74 were not immediately extubated once readiness-to-wean criteria were met (defined in Patients and methods)

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Tracheostomy timing and the duration of weaning in patients with acute respiratory failure"</p><p>Critical Care 2004;8(4):R261-R267.</p><p>Published online 24 Jun 2004</p><p>PMCID:PMC522847.</p><p>Copyright © 2004 Boynton et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article are permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved along with the article's original URL.</p> The early tracheostomy (ET) group consists of 21 patients who underwent tracheostomy prior to any active weaning attempts, and the selective tracheostomy (ST) group consists of all patients (= 53) who were initially weaned with an endotracheal tube in place. Ultimately, of the ST group, 25 patients underwent tracheostomy and 28 patients were successfully liberated and extubated

Comparisons by reference test.

<p>Summary of the 139 papers by reference test, including 413 index/reference comparisons. Of the culture reference tests, 80% were blood culture, making up 57% of all reference tests.</p

Constructed numerical example.

<p>Assumed sensitivity and specificity of the three tests: index test, 80% and 90%; test A, 50% and 100%; test B, 85% and 85%. Comparing the index test to a CRS = (fever) AND ((test A positive) OR (test B positive)). Fever, test A, and test B are independent conditional on disease status. Index test is independent of fever conditional on disease status.</p><p>Constructed numerical example.</p

Meta-analysis results by study quality.

<p>Summary diagnostic accuracies of index tests with five or more comparisons and blood culture as the reference test. Meta-analysis performed using bivariate random effects binomial regression.</p><p>¹ Could not be determined.</p><p>Meta-analysis results by study quality.</p

PRISMA flowchart.

<p>Study flow depicting search strategy, inclusion/exclusion criteria, and summary of systematic review.</p

Meta-analysis results.

<p>Graphical illustration of sensitivities (y-axis) and specificities (x-axis) corresponding to comparisons included in the meta-analysis: PCR-based assays (A), anti-LPS assays (B), TUBEX^® assays (C), anti-<i>S</i>. <i>typhi</i> assays (D), Typhidot assays (E), Widal assays (F). Meta-analysis was performed using bivariate random effects binomial regression (STATA command: <i>metandi</i>). Sizes of individual study estimates (grey circle) represent sample size. Summary point (red square), hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic curves (green line), 95% confidence regions (yellow dashed line), and 95% prediction regions (grey dashed line) are depicted.</p

Quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies.

<p>Summary of variables included in the QUADAS-2 tool assessing the quality of diagnostic accuracy studies. The criteria determined a study’s risk of bias or concern of applicability. When the domain-specific criteria were not met, the study had a high risk of bias or concern of applicability with respect to that domain. When the domain-specific criteria were all unclear, the risk of bias or concern of applicability was unclear.</p><p>¹ The currently available tests to detect typhoid fever are not sufficiently accurate; therefore, this question was problematic.</p><p>² “Unclear” = missing.</p><p>Quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies.</p

A comparison of the effects on the limit of detection (LOD) of assays heated by the non-instrumented nucleic acid amplification (NINA) heater.

<p>Combination of assays run with and without warm-up ramp and with or without oil are evaluated. Table entries show the number of replicates that returned a positive result as the numerator of a fraction showing the total number of replicates run in the denominator.</p><p>A comparison of the effects on the limit of detection (LOD) of assays heated by the non-instrumented nucleic acid amplification (NINA) heater.</p

Average temperature profiles of 74 runs with nine prototype non-instrumented nucleic acid amplification (NINA) heaters.

<p>Error bars show one standard deviation. Four devices were removed from testing when a failure mode rendered them no longer able to maintain temperature within specification. Final run data are not included in the graph. Mean time between failures (MTBF) for the failed devices is 14 runs.</p

Melt curve analysis of the HIV-1 and β-actin biplex reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) assay.

<p>Melt analysis showed products specific to HIV-1 at 78°C and β-actin at 89°C as seen in the singleplex assays. Specificity was confirmed in the presence of normal human plasma (NHP) without HIV-1 or β-actin (negative control) and showed no amplification (n = 3).</p