Diagnostic value of ground-glass opacity in suspected coronavirus disease 2019 patients: A meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to evaluate the diagnostic efficiency of ground-glass opacity (GGO) for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in suspected patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Web of Science, CNKI, and Wanfang databases were searched from November 01, 2019 to November 29, 2020. Studies providing the diagnostic test accuracy of chest computed tomography (CT) and description of detailed CT features for COVID-19 were included. Data were extracted from the publications. The sensitivity, specificity, and summary receiver operating characteristic curves were pooled. Heterogeneity was detected across included studies. RESULTS: Eleven studies with 1618 cases were included. The pooled sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve were 0.74 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.61–0.84), 0.52 (95% CI, 0.33–0.70), and 0.70 (95% CI, 0.66–0.74), respectively. There was obvious heterogeneity among included studies (P < 0.05). Differences in the study region, inclusion criteria, research quality, or research methods might have contributed to the heterogeneity. The included studies had no significant publication bias (P > 0.1). CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 was diagnosed not only by GGO with a medium level of diagnostic accuracy but also by white blood cell counts, epidemic history, and revers transcription-polymerase chain reaction testing.