Fig. 7: Deek's funnel plot of internal validation set.

a Presents the patient-based analysis, while b illustrates the image-based analysis. The funnel plot visually represents the relationship between study size and treatment effect, helping to assess publication bias. Asymmetry in the plots may indicate potential biases in the included studies. A P value of 0.05 was considered significant in evaluating this bias. This figure was generated using Stata 15.1 software.