Diagnostic Value of Endoscopic Ultrasound for Detecting Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) is widely used as a cost-effective method for detecting pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNTs), but its diagnostic value is variable among published studies. This meta-analysis aimed to determine the diagnostic value of EUS for PNTs.Three electronic databases, including PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library, were searched for studies published up to July 2018. The summary sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were calculated to evaluate the diagnostic value of EUS using the random-effects model.Thirteen studies involving 609 patients were included in this meta-analysis. The summary sensitivity and specificity of EUS for detecting PNTs were 0.86 and 0.89, respectively. The PLR and NLR of EUS were 7.81 and 0.15, respectively. The DOR of EUS for diagnosing PNTs was 24.20. The area under the ROC was 0.90. Finally, the subgroup analyses indicated that publication year and percentage of males could introduce potential biases for the DOR of EUS.This meta-analysis suggests that EUS has a relatively high diagnostic value for diagnosing PNTs.