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Updated: May 17, 2026
Ultrasonographic Evaluation of Salivary Glands for Sjogren's Syndrome: Diagnostic and Monitoring Insights
Published on: October 13, 2023
Ultrasonography has an acceptable diagnostic efficacy for temporomandibular disc displacement
1Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, TMD Clinic, University of Padova, Italy.
Data Sources:
Medline, Embase and the Chinese Biomedical Literature databases were searched with no language restrictions.
Study Selection:
Studies evaluating the diagnostic efficacy of ultrasonography in detecting TMJ disc displacement in participants with any symptoms or clinical signs related to temporomandibular disorders (TMD), with use of MRI as the gold standard, were included.
Data Extraction And Synthesis:
Study selection, data abstraction and risk of bias assessment were carried out independently by two reviewers. A meta-analysis was conducted.
Results:
Fifteen studies (14 cohort studies and one case control) were included in this review; six studies had a low risk of bias, six studies an unclear risk and three studies a high risk. Meta-regression indicated that the detected results were not influenced by the types of ultrasonography, image dimensions, types of transducer and ultrasonic image of the disc (P= .05). The Q* values (the point where sensitivity equals specificity on the summary reviewer operator characteristics curve) of ultrasonography for the closed- and open-mouth positions were 0.79 and 0.91, respectively. The diagnostic efficacy of disc displacement with reduction had a sensitivity of 0.76, a specificity of 0.82, a positive likelihood ratio of 3.80, a negative likelihood ratio of 0.36, a diagnostic odds ratio of 10.95, an area under the curve of 0.83 and a Q* of 0.76. The diagnostic efficacy of disc displacement without reduction had a sensitivity of 0.79, a specificity of 0.91, a positive likelihood ratio of 80.5, a negative likelihood ratio of 0.25, diagnostic odds ratio of 36.80, an area under the curve of 0.97 and a Q* of 0.92.
Conclusions:
The diagnostic efficacy of ultrasonography is acceptable and can be used as a rapid preliminary diagnostic method to exclude some clinical suspicions. However, positive ultrasonographic findings should be confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging. Also, the ability of ultrasonography to detect lateral and posterior displacements is still unclear.
