Evaluating the diagnostic accuracy of CT perfusion in patients with cerebral vasospasm after aneurysm rupture: a meta-analysis.

AIM: Computed tomography perfusion (CTP) has recently been used to identify regions of potential ischemia due to cerebral vasospasm, and CTP parameters are able to quantitatively evaluate brain parenchymal perfusion. We performed a meta-analysis as an update of a previous paper published in 2010 and aimed at evaluating the diagnostic accuracy of CTP and CTP parameters for vasospasm after aneurysm rupture.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Relevant articles published between January 2005 and May 2013 were systematically searched for analysis without language restrictions from the PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, and Cochrane databases. The data of CTP parameters, including CBV, CBF, MTT and TTP, were extracted for analysis, and the pooled sensitivity, specificity, PLR, NLR, DOR and the sROC curve were determined.

RESULTS: Three relevant articles and a total of 98 patients were finally involved in the analysis. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, PLR, NLR, DOR, and AUC of CTP for diagnosing cerebral vasospasm were 94%, 90%, 8.22, 0.06, 141.09, and 0.9802, respectively. Through the evaluation of CTP parameters, MTT had a higher sensitivity (91%) while CBF had a higher specificity (93%).

CONCLUSION: CT perfusion has a great diagnostic value to detect cerebral vasospasm compared with DSA in patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). As CTP parameters, CBF and MTT quantitatively evaluate brain parenchymal perfusion.