Fig. 3

a Evidence for validity of PETS in diagnosing SLAP lesions. The diamond represents a pooled DOR of 1.38 with a 95% confidence interval of [1.13, 1.69]. The Forrest plot also visualizes that the variation in performance between the presumably different PETS was low. Heterogeneity chi-squared was 26.6 (d.f. = 19), p = 0.12; I-squared (variation in DOR attributable to heterogeneity) was 28.5%. PETS-physical examination tests of the shoulder, DOR-diagnostic odds ratio. b Funnel plot of 2 × 2 tables constructed for SLAP lesions. Nos. 15, 17 and 19 were omitted in the meta-analysis due to outlier characteristics; i.e. visual outlier appearance (No. 19), Cooks distance (No. 19) and disease prevalences (for the 10 PETS) deviating from the average 46% (72% for Nos. 15 and 17 and 31% for No. 19). Assessment of spectrum effects showed that Nos. 19 (Biceps load II test, (Kim, S.H -01)) and Nos. 15 and 17 (the O’Brien and Crank test, (Myers, T.H -05)) had included a non-representative spectrum of patients; they had low average ages (30.6 years [No. 19] and 23.9 years [Nos. 15&17]) and for Nos. 15&17 only athletes younger than 50 were included. Ln(DOR)-natural logarithmic transformation of diagnostic odds ratio