Value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound combined with shear wave elastography in the diagnosis of benign and malignant liver tumors： A Meta-analysis / 临床肝胆病杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo investigate the value of contrast-enhanced ultrasound （CEUS） combined with shear wave elastography （SWE） in the diagnosis of liver tumors. MethodsThis study was conducted according to the PRISMA guideline， with a PROSPERO registration number of CRD42023491288. PubMed， Embase， the Cochrane Library， CNKI， VIP， and Wanfang Data were searched for articles on CEUS combined with SWE in the diagnosis of liver tumors published from January 2000 to October 2023， and a total of 12 articles were included， with 1 328 patients in total. The QUADAS-2 tool was used to assess the quality of the articles included. Stata 15.0 software was used to calculate pooled sensitivity， specificity， positive likelihood ratio， negative likelihood ratio， diagnostic odds ratio， and heterogeneity. The summary receiver operating characteristic （SROC） curve was plotted， and the area under the SROC curve （AUC） was calculated. ResultsThere were 1 457 lesions for the patients included， among whom there were 764 malignant lesions and 693 benign lesions， with a positive rate of 52.44% and a negative rate of 47.56%. Calculations obtained a pooled sensitivity of 0.94 （95% confidence interval ［CI］： 0.91‍ ‍—‍ ‍0.96）， a specificity of 0.92 （95%CI： 0.87‍ ‍—‍ ‍0.95）， a positive likelihood ratio of 12.00 （95%CI： 7.40‍ ‍—‍ ‍19.40）， a negative likelihood ratio of 0.06 （95%CI： 0.04‍ — ‍0.10）， and a diagnostic odds ratio of 191 （95%CI： 87‍ ‍—‍ ‍417）. The tests for heterogeneity showed Q=54.78， df=11.00， P<0.001， and I2=79.92% （95%CI： 69.18%‍ ‍—‍ ‍90.66%）， with an AUC of 0.98. ConclusionCEUS combined with SWE has a relatively high diagnostic value for benign and malignant liver tumors and thus holds promise for clinical application.