ABSTRACT
Purpose To evaluate the diagnosis value of real-time ultrasound elastography for differential diagnosis between benign and malignant parotid tumors.Materials and Methods A literature retrieval in PubMed,Embase,High Wire Press,Ovid and CNKI as of May 31,2016 in the English and Chinese languages was conducted.Articles and reviews related to discrimination between benign and malignant parotid gland nodules by means of ultrasound elastography scoring were selected.Pooled sensitivity and specificity,positive likelihood ratio,negative likelihood ratio,diagnostic odds ratio as well as summary receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were analyzed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound elasticity scoring.Results A final selection of 7 articles involving 486 nodules in 449 patients was included.Pooled sensitivity and specificity,positive likelihood ratio,negative likelihood ratio and diagnostic odds ratio of benign and malignant parotid tumors were 0.781 (95％ CI 0.702-0.847),0.797 (95％ CI 0.750-0.838),3.753 (95％ CI 2.293-6.124),0.285 (95％ CI 0.147-0.555) and 13.941 (95％ CI 4.571-42.519) respectively according to ultrasound elasticity scoring.Area under summary receiver operating characteristic curves was 0.8638 (index Q*=0.7944).Conclusion Real-time ultrasonic elastography has certain diagnostic value in differentiating benign parotid tumors and malignant ones.It can be used as a complement to conventional sonography for improving the diagnostic accuracy of parotid lesions.