Table 3.
Meta-analysed prevalence of incidentalomas
| Imaging request | Organ of incidentaloma | No of systematic reviews‡ | No of primary studies | No of patients with incidentalomas | Meta-analysed prevalence of incidentalomas (%; 95% CI) | τ2 | I2 (%) | Proportion (%) of heterogeneity explained by study size (R2 via meta-regression) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MRI spine | Spine | 1 | 7 | 129 | 22 (19 to 26) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Cardiac MRI | Extra-cardiac | 1 | 11 | 1916 | 34 (22 to 46) | 0.05 | 99 | 42 |
| CT chest (including CT cardiac) | Thorax, abdomen, spine, heart | 2 | 22 | 8194 | 45 (36 to 55) | 0.05 | 99 | 0 |
| CT chest* | Pulmonary vasculature (pulmonary embolism) | 2 | 5 | 137 | 2 (1 to 4) | 0.002 | 91 | 0 |
| CT chest† | Pulmonary vasculature (pulmonary embolism) | 2 | 9 | 171 | 2 (1 to 3) | 0.002 | 88 | 0 |
| CT colonoscopy | Extra-colon | 1 | 11 | 998 | 38 (21 to 57) | 0.09 | 99 | 0 |
| MRI brain | Brain | 2 | 27 | 4525 | 22 (14 to 31) | 0.07 | 100 | 0.22 |
| Whole body PET, PET/CT* | Thyroid, colon | 2 | 3 | 133 | 2 (1 to 4) | 0.003 | 97 | 95 |
| Whole body PET, PET/CT† | Thyroid, colon, parotid, breast, prostate | 6 | 93 | 7322 | 0.25 (2 to 3) | 0.004 | 99 | 0.25 |
CT=computed tomography; MRI=magnetic resonance imaging; PET= positron emission tomography.
*
Analysis only includes patients without a history of cancer.
†
Sensitivity analysis including patients with known or suspected cancer.
‡
Fifteen systematic reviews provided data to quantify the prevalence of detecting incidentalomas. The two results from whole body PET-PET/computed tomography overlap,† is the sensitivity analysis).