Table 4.
Results of Meta-regression and Subgroup Analyses for benign and malignant soft tissue tumors
| Modality and group | No. study | Sensitivity (%) | Specificity (%) | PLR | NLR | Diagnostic OR | I2 (%) | AUC | Q* index | a P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 27 | 0.80 (0.77-0.82) | 0.63 (0.60-0.67) | 2.37 (2.15-2.62) | 0.30 (0.26-0.34) | 8.61 (6.93-10.72) | 42.3 | 0.806 | 0.741 | 0.01 |
| ADC measurements | 0.399 | |||||||||
| ADCmin | 12 | 0.79 (0.76-0.83) | 0.60 (0.56-0.64) | 2.21 (1.95-2.50) | 0.31 (0.26-0.38) | 8.23 (6.08-11.14) | 31.7 | 0.805 | 0.74 | |
| ADCmean | 15 | 0.80 (0.76-0.83) | 0.68(0.63-0.73) | 2.61 (2.21-3.08) | 0.28 (0.23-0.35) | 9.08 (6.06-11.47) | 56.6 | 0.808 | 0.756 | |
| Number of b values | 0.409 | |||||||||
| b=2 | 12 | 0.76 (0.71-0.80) | 0.54 (0.49-0.59) | 1.86 (1.64-2.11) | 0.39 (0.32-0.47) | 5.54 (4.06-7.58) | 0 | 0.755 | 0.698 | |
| b>2 | 15 | 0.83 (0.80-0.86) | 0.72 (0.67-0.76) | 2.91 (2.28-3.72) | 0.26 (0.20-0.34) | 13.06 (9.58-17.81) | 38.8 | 0.842 | 0.774 | |
| Maximal b value | 0.858 | |||||||||
| b≤600 | 7 | 0.76 (0.70-0.81) | 0.46 (0.40-0.52) | 1.58 (1.39-1.81) | 0.43 (0.33-0.55) | 4.40 (2.95-6.57) | 0 | 0.705 | 0.657 | |
| 600<b≤800 | 15 | 0.83 (0.80-0.86) | 0.72 (0.68-0.76) | 3.02 (2.58-3.53) | 0.24 (0.19-0.29) | 13.26 (9.71-18.12) | 13.3 | 0.847 | 0.778 | |
| b>800 | 5 | 0.76 (0.69-0.82) | 0.73 (0.65-0.81) | 2.81 (2.11-3.85) | 0.33 (0.25-0.45) | 8.01 (4.91-13.05) | 47 | 0.767 | 0.706 | |
| Pathology of tumor | 0.515 | |||||||||
| All STTs | 22 | 0.79 (0.76-0.81) | 0.62 (0.59-0.65) | 2.25 (2.03-2.49) | 0.32 (0.28-0.37) | 7.80 (6.20-9.79) | 30.9 | 0.794 | 0.731 | |
| no-myxoid STTs | 5 | 0.88 (0.80-0.93) | 0.80 (0.69-0.89) | 4.34 (2.73-6.88) | 0.14 (0.08-0.24) | 26.69 (12.11-60.06) | 58.4 | 0.943 | 0.882 | |
| Percentage of myxoid MTTs | 0.041 | |||||||||
| >10% | 15 | 0.76 (0.72-0.79) | 0.66 (0.61-0.70) | 2.24 (1.94-2.59) | 0.37 (0.31-0.44) | 6.44 (4.79-8.34) | 18.2 | 0.769 | 0.711 | |
| ≤10% | 12 | 0.86 (0.82-0.89) | 0.61 (0.57-0.66) | 2.52 (2.19-2.89) | 0.22 (0.17-0.28) | 12.91 (8.96-18.61) | 46.5 | 0.867 | 0.798 | |
| Magnet strength | 0.019 | |||||||||
| 1.5T | 8 | 0.80 (0.75-0.84) | 0.49 (0.43-0.53) | 1.78 (1.55-2.04) | 0.33 (0.25-0.43) | 6.21 (4.15-9.29) | 58.6 | 0.790 | 0.728 | |
| 3.0T | 19 | 0.80 (0.76-0.83) | 0.71 (0.67-0.75) | 2.83 (2.46-3.25) | 0.29 (0.24-0.34) | 9.96 (7.69-12.90) | 24.2 | 0.812 | 0.746 | |
| Study design | 0.000 | |||||||||
| Retro | 18 | 0.81 (0.78-0.84) | 0.73 (0.69-0.76) | 2.96 (2.56-3.41) | 0.27 (0.23-0.32) | 11.14 (8.58-14.47) | 25.6 | 0.814 | 0.748 | |
| Pros | 9 | 0.77 (0.72-0.82) | 0.48 (0.43-0.53) | 1.66 (1.45-1.88) | 0.39 (0.30-0.50) | 4.98 (3.35-7.39) | 38.6 | 0.749 | 0.693 | |
| ROI placement | 0.018 | |||||||||
| Manually over solid portion | 22 | 0.79 (0.76-0.82) | 0.63 (0.60-0.67) | 2.37 (2.12-2.64) | 0.30 (0.26-0.35) | 8.33 (6.62-10.50) | 45.1 | 0.801 | 0.737 | |
| other | 5 | 0.83 (0.75-0.90) | 0.63 (0.54-0.72) | 2.43 (1.87-3.16) | 0.25 (0.16-0.39) | 11.08 (5.54-22.15) | 39.6 | 0.833 | 0.765 | |
| Total number of patients | 0.266 | |||||||||
| ≤60 | 10 | 0.85 (0.80-0.89) | 0.67 (0.61-0.73) | 2.70 (2.19-3.32) | 0.30 (0.26-0.35) | 12.65 (7.93-20.19) | 18.1 | 0.840 | 0.772 | |
| >60 | 17 | 0.77 (0.75-0.81) | 0.62 (0.58-0.68) | 2.27 (2.03-2.55) | 0.32 (0.28-0.38) | 7.66 (5.97-9.82) | 49.2 | 0.794 | 0.73 | |
a Represents the P value of meta-regression analysis, P <0.05 indicates significant contribution to heterogeneity.
MTTs: malignant soft tissue tumors; All STTs: all soft tissue tumors; non-myxoid STTS: non-myxoid soft tissue tumors; ADCmin: minimum ADC value; ADCmean: mean ADC value; PLR: positive likelihood ratio; NLR: negative likelihood ratio; AUC, area under SROC curve.