Table 1 “PICOS” approach for selecting clinical studies in the systematic search
PICOS | Characteristics of clinical studies included for the qualitative synthesis and meta-analysis |
|---|---|
1. Participants | Adult patients with severe sepsis and/or septic shock |
2. Intervention | Strain echocardiographic assessment with TTE, conducted within the first 48 h from diagnosis |
3. Comparison | Primary: comparison of GLS values between survivors and non-survivors Secondary: comparison of LVEF between survivors and non-survivors (only studies providing GLS) Sensitivity: leave-one-out-at-a-time, excluding studies with high risk of bias, including studies performing TTE within 1 week; including retrospective and case-control studies |
4. Outcomes | Mortality (at longest follow-up available) |
5. Study design | Prospective clinical studies |