Study designs of evaluations included in the review
Only studies comprising series of more than 10 patients were included.
Specific interventions included in the review
Study participants received TEE and cardioversion (spontaneous, pharmacological or electrical), without prophylactic anticoagulation. The control group received cardioversion without TEE screening, either with or without prophylactic anticoagulation.
Reference standard test against which the new test was compared
The review did not include any diagnostic accuracy studies that compared the performance of the index test with a reference standard of diagnosis.
Participants included in the review
Patients who had atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter for longer than 48 hours were included.
Outcomes assessed in the review
The outcome was the reported episodes of systemic embolic events including embolic stroke, transient ischaemic attack or peripheral embolus occurring within 10 days of cardioversion.
How were decisions on the relevance of primary studies made?
The authors do not state how the papers were selected for the review, or how many of the authors performed the selection.