Table 1

Diagnostic studies for analysis

Author	Country and year	Inclusion criteria	Outpatients (%)	Prevalence of PE	Sensitivity	Specificity	Study appraisal scores: 0 = no criteria fulfilled, 1 = only some criteria fulfilled, 2 = all criteria fulfilled
Author	Country and year	Inclusion criteria	Outpatients (%)	Prevalence of PE	Sensitivity	Specificity	Reference standard	Study cohort	Included patients	Excluded patients	CTPA protocol
CTPA, computer tomography pulmonary angiogram; PE, pulmonary embolism; VQ, ventilation-perfusion scan.
Nilsson et al¹⁵	Sweden 2002	Emergency department patients suspected of PE	100%	37%	30/33	55/57	2	1	1	1	2
Qanadli et al¹⁶	France 2000	Patients referred for radiological investigation of PE	87%	39%	56/59	89/92	2	1	1	2	2
Remy-Jardin et al¹⁷	France 1992	32 patients suspected of PE and 10 with abnormal chest x rays	Unknown	54%	18/18	23/24	2	1	1	0	2
von Steiner et al¹⁸	Germany 1994	Patients suspected of PE	Unknown	79%	30/30	8/8	0	1	1	0	1
Sostman et al¹⁹	USA 1996	Patients suspected of PE	Unknown	38%	9/13	14/15	2	1	1	1	1
Stone et al²⁰	Australia 2003	Patients with non-diagnostic VQ scans	Unknown	28%	4/7	17/18	0	1	1	1	1
Garg et al²¹	USA 1998	Patients with non-diagnostic VQ scan, some had normal lower limb ultrasound	Unknown	20%	4/6	18/18	2	1	1	1	2
Goodman et al²²	USA 1995	Patients with non-diagnostic VQs and normal ultrasound	Unknown	55%	7/11	8/9	2	1	1	1	2
Remy-Jardin et al²³	France 1996	Patients referred for pulmonary angiography	Unknown	62%	39/40	25/25	2	1	1	1	2
Drucker et al²⁴	USA 1998	Patients referred for pulmonary angiography	Unknown	32%	8/15	31/32	0	1	1	1	1
Ruiz et al²⁵	Spain 2003	Patients referred for pulmonary angiography	Unknown	38%	22/25	30/35	2	1	1	1	2
Winer-Muram et al²⁶	USA 2004	Patients referred for pulmonary angiography	Unknown	19%	18/18	67/75	2	1	1	1	2
Christiansen et al²⁷	Sweden 1997	Patients with high clinical suspicion of PE	Unknown	31%	19/22	40/44	2	1	0	0	1