M A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Diagnostic Accuracy of Fine-Needle Aspiration Cytology for Parotid Gland Lesions

A b s t r a c t The clinical usefulness of fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) for the diagnosis of parotid gland lesions is controversial. Many accuracy studies have been published, but the literature has not been adequately summarized. We identified 64 studies on the diagnosis of malignancy (6,169 cases) and 7 studies on the diagnosis of neoplasia (795 cases).The diagnosis of neoplasia (area under the summary receiver operating characteristic [AUSROC] curve, 0.99; 95 % confidence interval [CI], 0.97-1.00) had higher accuracy than the diagnosis of malignancy (AUSROC, 0.96; 95 % CI, 0.94-0.97). Several sources of bias were identified that could affect study estimates. Studies on the diagnosi