Table 3.

The result of meta-regression analysis.

covariates		sensitivity				specificity
	estimate (95%CI)	coefficient	Z	P	estimate (95%CI)	coefficient	Z	P
Study design	0.94 [0.86–0.98]	2.80	0.99	0.32	0.92 [0.83–0.96]	2.44	0.67	0.51
Reference standard	0.91 [0.80–0.96]	2.27	−0.25	0.80	0.91 [0.83–0.95]	2.29	0.55	0.58
Field strength	0.89 [0.78–0.94]	2.06	−1.53	0.13	0.89 [0.81–0.94]	2.08	−0.67	0.50
Scanning sequences	0.88 [0.72–0.96]	2.02	−0.75	0.45	0.92 [0.82–0.97]	2.47	0.71	0.48
Imaging planes	0.80 [0.50–0.94]	1.40	−1.66	0.10*	0.82 [0.58–0.94]	1.50	−1.14	0.25
Minimum slice thickness	0.85 [0.66–0.95]	1.75	−0.81	0.42	0.87 [0.71–0.95]	1.93	−0.14	0.89
Type of contrast agent	0.73 [0.33–0.94]	0.99	−1.93	0.05*	0.90 [0.69–0.98]	2.24	−0.02	0.98
Lesion size	0.96 [0.82–0.99]	3.06	0.58	0.56	0.91 [0.82–0.96]	2.29	−0.72	0.47
Publication year#	0.92 [0.83–0.96]	2.43	0.41	0.68	0.89 [0.81–0.94]	2.11	−0.57	0.57
Region	0.88 [0.77–0.95]	2.04	−1.40	0.16	0.87 [0.78–0.92]	1.89	−1.64	0.10*
Enhancement or not	0.93 [0.86–0.96]	2.52	1.70	0.09*	0.91 [0.84–0.95]	2.27	0.95	0.34
Interpretation method	0.88 [0.73–0.95]	1.98	−1.03	0.30	0.83 [0.72–0.90]	1.56	−2.69	0.01*
Patient enrollment	0.87 [0.70–0.95]	1.89	−1.11	0.27	0.92 [0.84–0.96]	2.46	0.89	0.38

#Publication year was binary-coded according to whether the studies were published before the year 2010 or not.

*P value satisfies the pre-set test standard of α = 0.10.