Diagnostic performance of computed tomography for bowel endometriosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis

To perform a systematic review and meta-analysis regarding the performance of CT for diagnosis of bowel endometriosis.

Pubmed and EMBASE were systematically searched up to March 28, 2019. Diagnostic accuracy studies using CT for diagnosis of bowel endometriosis using laparoscopy followed by histopathology as the reference standard were included. Methodological quality of the included studies was evaluated using Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2. Sensitivity and specificity were pooled using hierarchical summary receiver operating modelling. Meta-regression analysis was done to explore heterogeneity.

Twelve studies (1091 patients) were included. Pooled sensitivity and specificity were 0.92 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.83-0.97) and 0.95 (95% CI, 0.88-0.98), respectively. Substantial heterogeneity was present: I² = 92.38% for sensitivity and 89.09% for specificity. Deeks' asymmetry test suggested publication bias (p = 0.04). At meta-regression analysis, history of prior surgery for endometriosis was the only significant factor affecting heterogeneity (p < 0.01). Specifically, studies that included patients with such history demonstrated significantly greater specificity than studies that did not (0.95 [95% CI, 0.91-1.00] vs 0.75 [95% CI, 0.43-1.00]).

CT shows excellent performance in the diagnosis of bowel endometriosis. Due to small number of included studies and publication bias, further studies may be needed to validate these results.