[Critical appraisal of the literature in systematic review]

Critical appraisal of a literature is an important part of Systematic Review(SR) of laboratory tests. In this process, the quality of the clinical study is evaluated by using knowledge of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics. In the critical appraisal of articles of diagnostic tests, estimation of the design related bias, such as selection bias, spectrum bias, work-up bias, and referral bias, is extremely important. This article introduces the checklist for a diagnostic test proposed by the EBD collaboration in Japan. The proposed checklist consists of 23 items which effect on quality and external validity of the clinical studies. It will become a useful tool for systematic review in laboratory medicine.