Aortic & peripheral vascular disease
Diagnostic accuracy of carotid plaque instability by noninvasive imaging: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors' conclusion
CT and MRI have a similar, high performance in detecting vulnerable carotid plaques, whereas US showed significantly less diagnostic accuracy.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with symptomatic and asymptomatic carotid atherosclerosis36 vulnerable and 5 stable plaque studies
- Comparison
- CT vs MRI vs US for carotid plaque instability, compared to histology
- Outcome
- Diagnostic accuracy for vulnerable and stable plaque vs histology
Methodological detailsunivariate and bivariate random-effect meta-analyses, QUADAS-2 quality assessment, Medline Ovid, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science searched
- Univariate and bivariate random-effect meta-analyses
- QUADAS-2 quality assessment
- Medline Ovid, Embase, Cochrane Library and Web of Science searched
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
Detection of vulnerable plaque
| Group | Accuracy |
|---|---|
| MRI | 90% (95% CI: 82-95%) |
| CT | 86% (95% CI: 76-92%) |
| US | 80% (95% CI: 75-84%) |
Accuracy
MRI90% (95% CI: 82-95%)
CT86% (95% CI: 76-92%)
US80% (95% CI: 75-84%)
- CT similar to MRI
- P > 0.05
- US less accurate
- P = 0.013
Further pooled results
Visualization of vulnerable plaque characteristics
Visualization of stable plaque characteristics
- Visualization of vulnerable plaque characteristics — US lower accuracy
- P < 0.001
- Visualization of stable plaque characteristics — No significant difference
- P > 0.05
- Visualization of vulnerable plaque characteristics: 211 plaque characteristics: 28 CT, 120 MRI, 104 US
Original publication
Diagnostic accuracy of carotid plaque instability by noninvasive imaging: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Eur Heart J Cardiovasc Imaging. Published 2 July 2024. doi:10.
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