ABSTRACT
Objective To estimate the diagnostic value of dual-energy CT in gouty arthritis.Methods English and Chinese litera-tures publicated before May 2014 were searched in PubMed,Embase,Cochrane and Wanfang database.Available literatures were selected according to the inclusion and exclusion criterias.Sensitivity,specificity with 95% confidence interval (95% CI)was pooled with bivariate random-effects model.Hierarchical weighted symmetric summary receiver-operating curve (HSROC)was also used in estimating.Meta-regression and sensitivity analysis were used to explore the potential sources of heterogeneity.Results Nine studies were included in the analysis.The pooled sensitivity,specificity and 95% CI were 92%(84-96%)and 88%(83-92%)respectively, area under the HSROC curve was 0.91 (0.88-0.93).There was substantial heterogeneity between studies(I 2 =85%).Conclusion Dual-energy CT is accuracy in diagnosing gouty arthritis.The sources of heterogeneity was not been explored.