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Table 2 The pooled estimates of different imaging modalities in cN0 neck evaluation

From: Detection of cervical lymph node metastasis in head and neck cancer patients with clinically N0 neck—a meta-analysis comparing different imaging modalities

Modalities

Sensitivity

(95%CI)

Specificity (95%CI)

LR +

(95%CI)

LR-

(95%CI)

QUADAS score* (95%CI)

CT

0.52 (0.39 ~ 0.65)

0.93 (0.87 ~ 0.97)

7.9 (3.6 ~ 17.4)

0.51 (0.38 ~ 0.68)

8.1 (3.8 ~ 12.4)

MRI

0.65 (0.34 ~ 0.87)

0.81 (0.64 ~ 0.91)

3.4 (1.8 ~ 6.2)

0.44 (0.21 ~ 0.93)

7.6 (4.1 ~ 11.1)

PET

0.66 (0.47 ~ 0.80)

0.87 (0.77 ~ 0.93)

5.2 (2.6 ~ 10.4)

0.39 (0.24 ~ 0.65)

10 (6.9 ~ 13.1)

US

0.66 (0.54 ~ 0.77)

0.78 (0.71 ~ 0.83)

3.0 (2.1 ~ 4.2)

0.44 (0.3 ~ 0.64)

7.5 (3.6 ~ 11.4)

  1. *Yes: 1; No/unclear: 0.
  2. LR+: likelihood ratio positive; LR-: likelihood ratio negative.