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Table 3 GRADE profile for assessing quality of evidence for mild induced hypothermia after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

From: The effect of mild induced hypothermia on outcomes of patients after cardiac arrest: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

Quality assessment

No. of patients

Effect

Quality

Importance

No. of studies

Study design

Risk of bias

Inconsistency

Indirectness

Imprecision

Other considerations

MIH

Control

Relative (95 % CI)

Absolute (95 % CI)

Mortality (follow-up 180 days or hospital discharge)

5

Randomised trials

Seriousa

Seriousb

Seriousc

Not serious

None

332/691 (48.0 %)

343/672 (51.0 %)

RR 0.94 (0.84–1.04)

31 fewer per 1000 (from 20 more to 82 fewer)

VERY LOWa b c

CRITICAL

55.1 %

33 fewer per 1000 (from 22 more to 88 fewer)

Neurological outcome (follow-up 180 days or hospital discharge)

6

Randomised trials

Seriousa

Seriousb

Seriousc

Not serious

None

381/722 (52.8 %)

391/687 (56.9 %)

RR 0.83 (0.68–1.01)

97 fewer per 1000 (from 6 more to 182 fewer)

VERY LOWa b c

CRITICAL

67.1 %

114 fewer per 1000 (from 7 more to 215 fewer)

  1. GRADE Working Group grades of evidence: high quality—we are very confident that the true effect lies close to that of the estimate of the effect; moderate quality—we are moderately confident in the effect estimate (the true effect is likely to be close to the estimate of the effect, but there is a possibility that it is substantially different); low quality—our confidence in the effect estimate is limited (the true effect may be substantially different from the estimate of the effect); very low quality—we have very little confidence in the effect estimate (the true effect is likely to be substantially different from the estimate of effect).
  2. aAll trials were with substantial risk of bias
  3. bOne trial accounted for the largest part among all the trials and probably contributed to the heterogeneity
  4. cOne trial included only less than 8 % of the screened patients. One trial included only cardiac arrest patients with pulseless electrical activity and asystole
  5. CI Confidence interval, MIH Mild induced hypothermia, RR Risk ratio