Sensitivity and specificity of optical coherence tomography angiography in the diagnosis of active choroidal neovascularization: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract

This meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the diagnostic value of optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) for active choroidal neovascularization (CNV) of all types and etiologies. We searched the Web of Science, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Medline, and Embase databases for all interrelated published studies from inception to August 2020. Meta-disc and STATA were used for the data analyses. We measured the diagnostic value by assessing the pooled diagnostic sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve (sROC AUC). Sources of heterogeneity were also analyzed. Nine studies involving 785 eyes were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity was 0.83 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.75-0.88), specificity was 0.89 (95% CI, 0.79-0.94), PLR was 7.4 (95% CI, 3.8-14.6), NLR was 0.20 (95% CI, 0.13-0.29), and DOR was 38 (95% CI, 16-91). The sROC AUC was 0.91 (95% CI, 0.89-0.94). With respect to heterogeneity, the sensitivity of the fluorescein angiography (FA) reference standard group (0.71 [0.64-0.78]) and developed country group (0.77 [0.70-0.84]) was both lower than the sensitivity of the FA combined with optical coherence tomography (OCT) reference standard group (0.89 [0.84-0.93], P < 0.001) and developing country group (0.90 [0.85-0.95], P < 0.001). This meta-analysis suggests that OCTA is a non-invasive, convenient diagnostic method for active CNV and has high diagnostic value. Moreover, the accuracy of the diagnostic accuracy is independent of the types of device, algorithms, and the etiology of CNV.