title: Esophageal Endosonography for the Diagnosis of Intrapulmonary Tumors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Biopsy-based diagnosis in patients with paraesophageal intrapulmonary tumors suspected of lung cancer is crucial for adequate treatment planning.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the performance of transesophageal endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) in the diagnosis of intrapulmonary tumors located near or adjacent to the esophagus.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a systematic review (PROSPERO, CRD42016033737) and searched MEDLINE, Embase, BIOSIS Previews, and Web of Science on September 22, 2016, without date or language restrictions. We included studies that evaluated the yield and/or sensitivity of EUS-FNA for diagnosing intrapulmonary tumors. Yield was defined as the number of patients in whom EUS-FNA made a biopsy-proven diagnosis (malignant or nonmalignant) relative to the total number of patients on whom EUS-FNA was performed. Sensitivity was defined as the number of patients in whom EUS-FNA made a biopsy-proven diagnosis of malignancy relative to the total number of patients in whom the tumor was found to be malignant. We performed a random-effects meta-analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 3,320 search results, 11 studies were included. Ten had a high risk of bias. The total number of patients was 313; the proportion of patients with malignancy ranged from 87 to 100% across these studies. The average yield was 0.90 (95% CI 0.82-0.95) and the average sensitivity was 0.92 (0.83-0.96). In the subgroup of prospective studies (n = 3), the average yield was 0.80 (0.56-0.93) and the average sensitivity was 0.83 (0.58-0.95). EUS-FNA-induced complications were reported for 5/256 patients (2.0%) for whom this information was available.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although the number of high-quality studies is limited, these findings suggest that EUS-FNA is safe and has a high yield for diagnosing intrapulmonary tumors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Daniël A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Korevaar
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Colella
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Spijker
authors.forename: Patrick M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Bossuyt
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Konge
authors.forename: Paul Frost
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Clementsen
authors.forename: Jouke T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Annema
mesh_terms: D061765:Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Fine Needle Aspiration / Q000379:methods*; D004945:Esophagoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity