Table 1

General and specific quality criteria

General quality criteria

Sample size (total number of participants)
Randomization allocation concealment (adequate, inadequate or uncertain)
Objective selection criteria for participants:
     Yes: if inclusion and exclusion criteria for participants are adequately reported
     No: if selection criteria are not reported
Blinding:
     Yes: for articles that implemented blinding at any level
     No: for articles reporting not being able to implement blinding of interventions at any level
     Not reported: for articles that did not make any mention of blinding
Standardization of co-interventions:
     Yes: if there was an attempt to standardize treatment and care besides the assigned interventions
     No: if no attempt to standardize was applied
     Uncertain: if this was not clearly reported
Intention-to-treat analysis (adequate, inadequate or uncertain)
Complete follow-up details (yes, no, not reported)
Outcome definition:
     Adequate: if objective criteria for endotracheal intubation were defined
     Inadequate: if the criteria were not defined
     Uncertain: if application of criteria was unclear
Specific quality criteria
Patient selection criteria (inclusion and exclusion)
Type of patients (presence of baseline co-morbidity: AMI or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)
Description of baseline criteria for severity of illness
Report of interventions (technical description of CPAP and NPPV methods)
Report of objective criteria for endotracheal intubation (adequate, inadequate or uncertain)

CPAP, continuous positive airway pressure ventilation; NPPV, non-invasive positive pressure ventilation.

Winck et al. Critical Care 2006 10:R69   doi:10.1186/cc4905