Most of the changes in RevMan 5.2 are for DTA reviews.
The changes ONLY apply to new DTA reviews or where an existing review switches to QUADAS-2 for assessment of methodological quality
Background section: 'Alternative test' subheading
removed and replaced with 'Clinical pathway' with three optional subheadings.
Text can be entered under clinical pathway as well as under any of
the subheadings
Objectives section: 'Investigation of sources of heterogeneity' subheading removed and existing text combined with the 'Secondary objectives' subheading
Methods section: removal of the subheading 'Comparator tests'. Existing text merged with 'Index tests'.
Discussion section: 'Applicability of findings to clinical practice and policy' changed to 'Applicability of findings to the review question'
'Summary of results table' changed to 'Summary of
findings table'.
Note this is not the same as the summary of findings table for interventions
and does not rely on GRADE.
Study characteristics for included studies: the changes ONLY apply to new DTA reviews or where an existing review switches to QUADAS-2 for assessment of methodological quality.
New data entry structure for Characteristics of Included Studies and Methodological Quality data tables. Due to overlap between the expected content of the 'Characteristics of included studies' table and that of the description expected for each domain in the QUADAS-2 table, the two tables have been combined into one in RevMan 5.2. However, in the published review both tables are rendered separately. It is possible to preview the characteristics table within RevMan 5.2.
Fields in the Characteristics of Included Studies tables renamed or merged:
Study design becomes Patient sampling
Participants and, Clinical features and setting merged into one field as Patient characteristics and setting.
Follow up becomes Flow and timing.
Confidence intervals used on SROC and forest plots for individual study estimates of sensitivity and specificity – choice of 90%, 95%, and 99%. The default is 95%.
Confidence regions used for summary points – choice of 90%, 95%, and 99%. The default is 95%.
Prediction regions used for summary points – choice of 50%, 90%, and 95%. The default is 95%.
Confidence intervals can be plotted on individual study points in ROC space.
Option to switch axes off when study points coincide with axes.
Scaling overall size of study points to improve their appearance on SROC plots.
SROC plots with paired data – appearance of connecting lines.
SROC plots with multiple tests or investigation of heterogeneity:
Plotting options – choice of symbols and colours.
Different specificity range for each SROC curve, so option moved from properties to content pane
Legend added for SROC plot of a single test.
Covariate – option for selecting only some of the categories of a categorical covariate for conducting analyses.
Study names on SROC plots – if too many or studies overlap considerably, instead of labelling with study names, study points can be labelled with numbers with a legend added to the plot for the study numbers and corresponding study names.
SC ROC axis labels - 'Sensitivity' and 'Specificity' are centered along their respective axes, and 'Sensitivity' displayed vertically
Quality graphs – drawing options for enhancing the graphs.
Renamed to 'Risk of bias and applicability concerns'.
Option to add the number of studies for each response category to each bar on the plot.
Produce figures per test group.
Import studies – ability to import XML format containing study data, including Study characteristics. For intervention reviews only.
Export references in Vancouver style.
Preview published PDF – generates a preview of the published PDF version. In File menu.
Active choice of forest plot labels is required, with validation error if left as default.
Validation check for the accuracy of references to other Cochrane reviews.
Review number displayed in Check out window.
Default width when creating a new table –to make them wider, tables now start with [Insert text] in the first row
Wider default boxes in flow diagrams.