Gao Junhui, Liu Ying, Zheng Lipeng, Wang Xiaogang, Wang Yingluan, Zhou Tongxia
Department of Ultrasound Medicine, Zibo Municipal Hospital, Zibo, Shandong 255400, P.R. China.
Department of Electrocardiogram Diagnosis, Zibo Municipal Hospital, Zibo, Shandong 255400, P.R. China.
Oncol Lett. 2025 Jun 24;30(3):407. doi: 10.3892/ol.2025.15153. eCollection 2025 Sep.
The ability of conventional ultrasound (US) and contrast-enhanced (CE)US to diagnose lymph node metastasis in patients with thyroid cancer has been explored, but there is a lack of a pooled analysis. In the present study, a meta-analysis was performed to explore the diagnostic performance of conventional US and CEUS for lymph node metastasis in patients with thyroid cancer. The PubMed, Web of Science, Embase and Cochrane Library databases were searched to identify studies related to the diagnosis of lymph node metastasis using CEUS and conventional US in patients with thyroid cancer published until February 2024. This meta-analysis incorporated 9 studies, involving a total of 1,226 patients with thyroid cancer. The quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies-2 tool suggested that the quality of the included studies was good. A summary receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed to assess the diagnostic performance of conventional US and CEUS. The pooled sensitivity [95% confidence interval (CI)], specificity (95% CI) and the area under curve (AUC) of conventional US for diagnosing lymph node metastasis were 0.77 (0.73-0.80), 0.72 (0.68-0.76) and 0.7925, respectively, in patients with thyroid cancer, while the parameters of CEUS were 0.85 (0.82-0.88), 0.86 (0.82-0.89) and 0.9216, respectively. Overall, the pooled sensitivity, specificity and AUC of CEUS for diagnosing lymph node metastasis were higher than those of conventional US in patients with thyroid cancer (all P<0.001). Deeks' asymmetry test suggested that no publication bias existed in this meta-analysis. In conclusion, CEUS shows a better ability to diagnose lymph node metastasis than the conventional US in patients with thyroid cancer.
传统超声（US）和超声造影（CE）US诊断甲状腺癌患者淋巴结转移的能力已被探索，但缺乏汇总分析。在本研究中，进行了一项荟萃分析，以探讨传统US和CEUS对甲状腺癌患者淋巴结转移的诊断性能。检索了PubMed、Web of Science、Embase和Cochrane图书馆数据库，以识别截至2024年2月发表的关于使用CEUS和传统US诊断甲状腺癌患者淋巴结转移的研究。该荟萃分析纳入了9项研究，共涉及1226例甲状腺癌患者。诊断准确性研究-2工具的质量评估表明，纳入研究的质量良好。进行了汇总受试者工作特征分析，以评估传统US和CEUS的诊断性能。在甲状腺癌患者中，传统US诊断淋巴结转移的汇总敏感性[95%置信区间（CI）]、特异性（95%CI）和曲线下面积（AUC）分别为0.77（0.73-0.80）、0.72（0.68-0.76）和0.7925，而CEUS的参数分别为0.85（0.82-0.88）、0.86（0.82-0.89）和0.9216。总体而言，在甲状腺癌患者中，CEUS诊断淋巴结转移的汇总敏感性、特异性和AUC均高于传统US（所有P<0.001）。Deeks不对称检验表明，该荟萃分析不存在发表偏倚。总之，在甲状腺癌患者中，CEUS诊断淋巴结转移的能力优于传统US。
