RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Thoracic ultrasound for malignant pleural effusion: A systematic review and meta–analysis
JF ERJ Open Research
JO erjor
FD European Respiratory Society
SP 00464-2020
DO 10.1183/23120541.00464-2020
A1 Akihiro Shiroshita
A1 Sayumi Nozaki
A1 Yu Tanaka
A1 Yan Luo
A1 Yuki Kataoka
YR 2020
UL http://openres.ersjournals.com/content/early/2020/09/10/23120541.00464-2020.abstract
AB This systematic review aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of thoracic ultrasound in malignant pleural effusion.Articles published until December 2019 in MEDLINE, Embase, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform were screened by two authors independently to extract data and evaluate the risks of bias and applicability using the modified Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 tool. We described the forest plots of each thoracic ultrasound finding. We estimated the pooled sensitivity and specificity of pleural nodularity using the bivariate random-effects model.We included seven articles and found that each thoracic ultrasound finding had low sensitivity. The pooled specificity of pleural nodularity was 96.9% (95% confidence interval, 93.2%–98.6%).In conclusion, thoracic ultrasound is not useful in ruling out malignant pleural effusion. Physicians can proceed rigorously to repeat thoracentesis or other invasive procedures when pleural nodularity is detected.FootnotesThis manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research. It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article.Conflict of interest: Dr. Shiroshita has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Nozaki has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Tanaka has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Luo has nothing to disclose.Conflict of interest: Dr. Kataoka has nothing to disclose.