Diagnostic performance of shear wave elastography for the diagnosis of primary Sjogren’s syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Abstract Objectives This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to assess the performance of shear wave elastography (SWE) on both salivary glands in diagnosing primary Sjogren’s syndrome. Methods PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Ovid MEDLINE and Cochrane Library were comprehensively searched for relevant studies in English through September 2020. Studies that investigated the diagnostic effect of two-dimensional SWE and acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) that uses virtual touch quantification (VTQ™) were considered eligible for this study. Quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies-2 (QUADAS-2) tool was used to evaluate the methodological quality. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, negative and positive likelihood, diagnostic odds ratio and the summary receiver operating characteristics (SROC) curve were calculated using the random-effect model. Results Of the 591 studies identified, six were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of SWE in detecting primary Sjogren’s syndrome in parotid and submandibular glands were 79% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.67 – 0.87), 80% (95% CI: 0.69 – 0.87), 78% (95% CI:0.67 – 0.86) and 78% (95% CI: 0.53 – 0.91), respectively. Conclusions SWE is a promising tool in the identification of primary Sjogren’s syndrome in salivary glands.