A Beginning or the End? A Meta-analysis to Assess the Diagnostic Accuracy of Transient Elastography for the Prediction of Esophageal Varices

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To assess the accuracy of transient elastography (TE) in the prediction of esophageal varices (EV). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The literature search was conducted by using PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and CENTRAL on The Cochrane Library without time or language restrictions. Terms used were “FibroScan,” “transient elastography,” “stiffness,” and “esophageal varices.” The pooled sensitivity, specificity, and other parameters were obtained using a bivariate mixed-effects regression model. RESULT: Twenty studies (2530 patients) were identified for inclusion. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios, and diagnostic odds ratio were 0.84 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.79–0.87), 0.68 (95% CI, 0.61–0.73), 2.58 (95% CI, 2.15–3.10), 0.24 (95% CI, 0.19–0.32), and 10.60 (95%CI, 7.20–15.62), respectively. The summary area under receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) curves was 0.82 (95% CI, 0.79–0.86). Especially, for hepatitis C patients, the diagnostic performance of TE for detecting the presence of EV was similar to all other patients with a sensitivity of 0.83 and a specificity of 0.63, but without heterogeneity (I(2) = 0.00). For the prediction of large esophageal varices in patients with viral liver cirrhosis, the pooled sensitivity and specificity of TE were 0.82 (95% CI 0.74–0.89) and 0.77 (95% CI 0.65-0.85), respectively, without significant heterogeneity (I(2) = 0.00). CONCLUSION: Transient elastography has good sensitivity and moderate specificity. TE can be used as an effective noninvasive screening tool for the prediction of esophageal varices, especially in hepatitis C patients, and for the prediction of large esophageal varices in patients with viral liver cirrhosis.