Table 5.

Meta-regression analysis of 18F-FDG PET/CT for colorectal liver metastasis.

Covariate	Studies, n	Sensitivity (95%CI)	P-value	Specificity (95%CI)	P-value
Analysis			0.37		0.16
Patient-based	9	0.93 (0.88-0.98)		0.90 (0.83-0.97)
Lesion-based	7	0.71 (0.56-0.85)		0.89 (0.81-0.97)
Ethnicity			0.68		0.25
Asia	12	0.86 (0.77-0.95)		0.91 (0.85-0.96)
Others	4	0.84 (0.68-1.00)		0.85 (0.75-0.95)
Reference standard			0.46		0.19
Pathology	3	0.72 (0.46-0.99)		0.85 (0.76-0.95)
Pathology and/or follow-up imaging	13	0.88 (0.81-0.95)		0.90 (0.85-0.95)
Clinical indication			0.02		0.01
Initial staging and post-treatment	11	0.81 (0.70-0.92)		0.85 (0.78-0.93)
Initial staging or post-treatment	5	0.93 (0.85-1.00)		0.94 (0.88-1.00)
Study design			0.16		<0.001
Retrospective	9	0.83 (0.72-0.95)		0.84 (0.76-0.92)
Prospective	7	0.88 (0.78-0.99)		0.93 (0.88-0.98)
Image analysis			<0.001		0.02
Visual	10	0.76 (0.64-0.88)		0.85 (0.79-0.92)
Quantitative	5	0.94 (0.89-1.00)		0.94 (0.87-1.00)
Iodinated contrast medium			0.41		<0.001
Yes	5	0.85 (0.71-0.99)		0.80 (0.68-0.92)
No	11	0.86 (0.76-0.95)		0.92 (0.87-0.96)