Abstract:

Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in the diagnosis of mandibular invasion caused by oral cancers. Methods Medline, EMBASE, SIGLE, and Chinese biomedical literature database were searched electronically. Manual searching for 19 relevant Chinese journals was also performed. Two reviewers evaluated the literature and extracted the data. Meta-Disc 1.4 was chosen to conduct the sensitivity (SEN), specificity (SPE), and 95% confidence interval (95%CI). Results Twelve studies with a total of 476 patients, namely, 5 prospective studies and 7 retrospective studies, were included. All the studies had unclear risk of bias. Meta-analysis result showed that the combination of SEN of MR in diagnosing mandibular invasion was 0.779 (95%CI:0.719-0.831), combination of SPE was 0.823 (95%CI:0.767-0.870), positive likelihood ratio was 3.442 (95%CI:2.181-5.431), negative likelihood ratio was 0.286 (95%CI:0.181-0.451), and diagnostic odds ratio was 25.702 (95%CI:13.406-49.273). The area under curve was 0.903 9 and Q* was 0.835 4. Meta-analysis was not processed when diagnosing mandibular medullary invasion because only two studies with 55 patients had been reported. The SEN was 0.838, and the SPE was 0.722. Conclusion MR is efficient and has clinical value in the diagnosis of mandibular invasion caused by oral cancer.

Key words: oral cancer, mandible, invasion, magnetic resonance imaging