Objective: The purpose of the current study was to investigate the diagnostic performance of F-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) for diagnosis of cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) through a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Methods: The PubMed and EMBASE database, from the earliest available date of indexing through 31 March 31, 2018, were searched for studies evaluating the diagnostic performance of F-18 FDG PET or PET/CT for CS. We determined the sensitivities and specificities across studies, calculated positive and negative likelihood ratios (LR+ and LR-), and constructed summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curves.
Results: Across 17 studies (891 patients), the pooled sensitivity was 0.84 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.71-0.91] with heterogeneity (I2 = 77.5) and a pooled specificity of 0.83 (95% CI 0.74-0.89) with heterogeneity (I2 = 80.0). Likelihood ratio (LR) syntheses gave an overall LR+ of 4.9 (95% CI 3.3-7.3) and LR- of 0.2 (95% CI 0.11-0.35). The pooled diagnostic odds ratio was 27 (95% CI 14-55). Hierarchical SROC curve indicates that the area under the curve was 0.90 (95% CI 0.87-0.92). Meta-regression showed that combined myocardial perfusion imaging was the source of heterogeneity.
Conclusion: The current meta-analysis showed the moderate sensitivity and specificity of F-18 FDG PET or PET/CT for diagnosis of CS. The presence of combined myocardial perfusion imaging could improve diagnostic accuracy of F-18 FDG PET or PET/CT for diagnosis of CS. At present, the literature regarding the use of F-18 FDG PET for detection of CS remains limited; thus, further large multicenter studies would be necessary to substantiate the diagnostic accuracy of F-18 FDG PET for diagnosis of CS.
Keywords: F-18 FDG; PET/CT; diagnosis; sarcoidosis.