Lesions of ligamentum teres: Diagnostic performance of mri and mr arthrography—a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study is to determine the diagnostic performance of MRI and MR arthrography for depicting ligamentum teres lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS. A literature search was performed. Original studies reporting the diagnostic accuracy of MRI examinations for the depiction of ligamentum teres lesions were included. RESULTS. Eight studies entailing 1456 MRI examinations were included (frequency of median ligamentum teres injury, 25.9%; interquartile range, 14.1–45.3%). Two studies reported the results of unenhanced MRI examinations, and their diagnostic performance could not be estimated. Sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) of all MRI examinations were 64.7%, 86.9%, and 12.2, respectively, whereas the sensitivity, specificity, and DOR of MR arthrography examinations were 82.2%, 88.6%, and 35.9, respectively. The heterogeneity (I ² ) for all MRI and MR arthrography examinations was 92.3% and 88.2%, respectively. Five blinded MR arthrography studies with 643 MR arthrography examinations found an appropriate threshold effect for summary ROC construction (AUC, 0.95). The summary estimate of these studies yielded a sensitivity of 87.8%, a specificity of 91%, and DOR of 73.1. The heterogeneity (I ² ) for this group was 64.3%. In patients with low pretest probability (25%), MR arthrography enabled the exclusion of ligamentum teres lesion (postprobability for a negative result, 4%; negative likelihood ratio, 0.13). CONCLUSION. MR arthrography can depict ligamentum teres lesions with high accuracy. However, its diagnostic performance for differentiating various types of ligamentum teres lesions (partial, complete ligamentum teres tears, and hypertrophic ligamentum teres), as well as the diagnostic performance of unenhanced MRI for the depiction of ligamentum teres lesions, is yet to be determined because of the paucity of reported data in the literature.