Diagnostic Performance of CT for Diagnosis of Fat-Poor Angiomyolipoma in Patients With Renal Masses: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this article is to systematically review and perform a meta-analysis of the diagnostic performance of CT for diagnosis of fat-poor angiomyolipoma (AML) in patients with renal masses.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

MEDLINE and EMBASE were systematically searched up to February 2, 2017. We included diagnostic accuracy studies that used CT for diagnosis of fat-poor AML in patients with renal masses, using pathologic examination as the reference standard. Two independent reviewers assessed the methodologic quality using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 tool. Sensitivity and specificity of included studies were calculated and were pooled and plotted in a hierarchic summary ROC plot. Sensitivity analyses using several clinically relevant covariates were performed to explore heterogeneity.

RESULTS

Fifteen studies (2258 patients) were included. Pooled sensitivity and specificity were 0.67 (95% CI, 0.48-0.81) and 0.97 (95% CI, 0.89-0.99), respectively. Substantial and considerable heterogeneity was present with regard to sensitivity and specificity (I = 91.21% and 78.53%, respectively). At sensitivity analyses, the specificity estimates were comparable and consistently high across all subgroups (0.93-1.00), but sensitivity estimates showed significant variation (0.14-0.82). Studies using pixel distribution analysis (n = 3) showed substantially lower sensitivity estimates (0.14; 95% CI, 0.04-0.40) compared with the remaining 12 studies (0.81; 95% CI, 0.76-0.85).

CONCLUSION

CT shows moderate sensitivity and excellent specificity for diagnosis of fat-poor AML in patients with renal masses. When methods other than pixel distribution analysis are used, better sensitivity can be achieved.