Background: The incidence of ischemic cerebrovascular disease (ICVD) has been increasing, leading to disability and deaths among middle-aged and elderly people. Digital subtraction angiography (DSA) is the gold standard for diagnosing ICVD, but it is invasive, expensive, and complex to operate. Transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasound is characterized by high accuracy, simplicity, and low cost, and thus became the focus of this study.
Methods: The databases of PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and The Cochrane Library were searched from January 2000 to September 2020, for literature involving the use of TCD to diagnose ICVD. The software RevMan 5.3 was used for quality assessment, and forest plots and summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curves were drawn. The software STATA12.0 was adopted for publication bias analysis.
Results: A total of 11 references were included, and the combined sensitivity, specificity, and 95% confidence interval (CI) of TCD were 0.93 (0.75 to 1.00) and 0.95 (0.78 to 1.00), respectively. The area under the curve (AUC) of SROC was 0.887.
Discussion: Superb capabilities in diagnosing ICVD have been demonstrated by TCD, and it should therefore be applied in the clinic. The results are important to realize early diagnosis of ICVD and improve the prognosis of patients.
Keywords: Ischemic cerebrovascular disease (ICVD); diagnostic value; meta-analysis; transcranial doppler (TCD).