Study designs of evaluations included in the review
No specific inclusion criteria relating to the study design were reported. The authors stated that the reports were required to provide sufficient data on the materials and methods used, but this was not defined further.
Specific interventions included in the review
Studies of PCTs that measured numbers of motile spermatozoa per high-power (x400) field (HPF) were eligible for inclusion. The included studies used the cut-offs of 1, 5, 7 and 20 motile spermatozoa per HPF to define normality.
Reference standard test against which the new test was compared
The included studies were required to report the occurrence of pregnancy (reference standard) for the total group of women. Studies in which the pregnancy rates could not be calculated separately for those with normal and abnormal PCTs were excluded.
Participants included in the review
Studies relating to infertile couples were eligible for inclusion.
Outcomes assessed in the review
No inclusion criteria relating to the outcome measures were specified. The outcome measures reported in the review were the sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios, and positive and negative predictive values. These were calculated from 2x2 data, where a true positive was defined as an abnormal test and no pregnancy, and a true negative was defined as a normal test and pregnancy.
How were decisions on the relevance of primary studies made?
The authors did not state how the papers were selected for the review, or how many reviewers performed the selection.