Published in:
01-12-2015 | Original Article
Endoscopic Ultrasonography-Guided Biopsy for Differentiation of Benign and Malignant Pelvic Lesions: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Published in: Digestive Diseases and Sciences | Issue 12/2015
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Background
Preoperative diagnosis of pelvic lesions remains challenging despite advances in imaging technologies. Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS)-guided biopsy is an effective diagnostic modality for sampling the digestive tract and surrounding areas. However, a meta-analysis summarizing the diagnostic efficacy of EUS-guided biopsy for pelvic lesions has not been published.
Aims
We aimed to evaluate the utility of EUS-guided biopsy in the diagnosis of pelvic lesions.
Methods
Articles were identified via structured database search; only studies where pelvic lesions were confirmed by surgery or clinical follow-up were included. Data extracted were selected with strict criteria. A fixed-effects model was used to estimate the sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR). A summary receiver operating characteristic curve (SROC) was also constructed.
Results
Ten studies containing a total of 246 patients were included. The pooled sensitivity of EUS-guided biopsy for differential diagnosis of pelvic masses was 0.89 (95 % CI 0.83–0.94), and the specificity was 0.93 (95 % CI 0.86–0.97). The area under the SROC was 0.9631. The combined PLR, NLR, and DOR were 11.75 (95 % CI 5.90–23.43), 0.12 (95 % CI 0.07–0.20), and 100.06 (95 % CI 37.48–267.10) respectively. There is potential presence of publication bias in this meta-analysis.
Conclusions
Our meta-analysis shows that EUS-guided biopsy is a powerful tool for differentiating pelvic masses with a high sensitivity and specificity. Furthermore, it is a safe procedure with low rate of complication, although more high-quality prospective studies are required to be done.