Diagnostic accuracy of non-radiologist performed ultrasound for abdominal aortic aneurysm: systematic review and meta-analysis.
BACKGROUND
Ultrasonography is increasingly used by clinicians to identify abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis comparing the accuracy of non-radiologist performed ultrasound (NRPUS) for AAA disease to the 'gold standard' of radiologist performed aortic imaging (RPI), intra-operative findings or postmortem findings.


METHODS
Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, SCOPUS-V.4, trial registries, conference proceedings, and article reference lists were searched to identify studies comparing NRPUS with RPI as the reference standard. Data abstracted from eligible studies was used to generate 2 × 2 contingency tables allowing calculation of pooled sensitivity and specificity values.


RESULTS
11 studies (944 patients) evaluated NRPUS for AAA detection. NRPUS had a pooled sensitivity of 0.975 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.942-0.992] for AAA detection and a pooled specificity of 0.989 (95% CI, 0.979-0.995).


CONCLUSIONS
Non-radiologist performed ultrasound achieves acceptable sensitivity and specificity for both detection and measurement of AAA. There was no evidence of significant heterogeneity with respect to pooled sensitivity or specificity.
Vascular Research Unit, Department of Vascular Surgery, University Hospital Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
E
E
Concannon
S
S
McHugh
D A
DA
Healy
E
E
Kavanagh
P
P
Burke
M
M
Clarke Moloney
S R
SR
Walsh
D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D010819:Physician's Role; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems / Q000592:standards*; D011871:Radiology / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014463:Ultrasonography