March 28, 2019 — Journal of Ultrasound Medicine
Diagnostic Imaging
CEUS for Renal Cancer Diagnosis
A new meta-analysis published in the Journal of Ultrasound Medicine suggests that contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) may offer more sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of renal cancer than contrast-enhanced computer tomography (CECT).
Researchers from China compared the diagnostic accuracy of CEUS to CECT in order to evaluate patients for renal cancer. The researchers reviewed data sets from twenty-two studies published before 2017, performing a meta-analysis on a variety of diagnostic factors in order to compare and contrast the diagnostic value of these two methods. Those factors included sensitivity and specificity, as well as:
- Positive and negative likelihood ratios;
- Positive and negative predictive values;
- Diagnostic odds ratio;
- Summary receiver operating characteristic curve and area under the cure;
- and potential other sources of heterogeneity.
The results of the analysis showed CEUS to have strong diagnostic strength, with a summary sensitivity and specificity measured at 0.96 and 0.82, respectively, and a summary diagnostic odds ratio at 102.04. When the two methods were compared directly, CEUS demonstrated a higher diagnostic sensitivity (0.94) over CECT (0.85) when diagnosing renal cancer, when the specificities were comparable, leading the researchers to conclude that CEUS may be a better tool for diagnosing this form of cancer in patients.
