Effectiveness of contrast-enhanced ultrasound for detecting the staging and grading of bladder cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

<bold>Aim: </bold>The study retrospectively analysed the accuracy of preoperative contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) in differenti-ating stage Ta-T1 or low-grade bladder cancer (BC) from stage T2 or high-grade bladder cancer.<bold>Material and Methods: </bold>We systematically searched the literature indexed in PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library for original diagnostic articles of bladder cancer. The diagnostic accuracy of CEUS was compared with cystoscopy and/or transurethral resection of bladder tumors (TURBT). The bivariate logistic regression model was used for data pooling, couple forest plot, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC).<bold>Results: </bold>Five studies met the selection criteria; the overall number of reported bladder cancers patients were 436. The pooled-sensitivity (P-SEN), pooled-specificity (P-SPE), pooled-positive likelihood ratio (PLR+), pooled-negative likelihood ratio (PLR-), DOR, and area under the SROC curve were 94.0% (95%CI: 85%-98%), 90% (95%CI: 83%-95%), 9.5 (95%CI: 5.1-17.6), 0.06 (95%CI: 0.02-0.17), 147 (95%CI: 35-612) and 97% (95% CI: 95%-98%) respectively.<bold>Conclusion: </bold>CEUS reaches a high efficiency in discriminating Ta-T1 or low-grade bladder cancer from stage T2 or high-grade bladder cancer. It can be a promising method in patients to distinguish T staging and grading of bladder cancer because of its high sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]