Search strategy

The search strategy (see online supplementary file 1) aims to identify published and peer-reviewed articles with available full text. A stepwise approach will identify the selected articles. As indicated in figure 1, an initial limited search of Medline and Scopus will be undertaken; this will be followed by the analysis of the text words contained in the titles and abstracts, and of the index terms used to describe each article. A second search, using all identified keywords and index terms, will then be undertaken across all included databases. In the third step, the reference lists of key articles will be searched for additional studies. Studies will be restricted to the English language and to those published from 1999 to 2019, inclusive. The databases that will be searched are Medline, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochrane Library of Systematic Reviews.

A schematic process of the systemic review. CRP, C reactive protein; hsCRP, high-sensitive C reactive protein;IL, interleukin; PRISMA-P, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocol; RCT, randomised controlled clinical trial; TNF-α, tumour necrosis factor alpha.

bmjopen-2020-039034supp001.pdf