Objective To systematically review the value of ultrasound in the diagnosis of fracture of the distal radius and ulna for providing evidence for clinical diagnosis. MethodsWe searched PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library (Issue 7, 2016), CNKI, CBM and WanFang Data databases for studies about ultrasound in the diagnosis of fracture of the distal radius and ulna from inception to August 1st, 2016. Two reviewers independently screened literatures according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias of included studies by using the QUADAS-2 (Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2) tool, and then meta-analysis was performed by using Meta-Disc 1.4 software. ResultsA total of 16 articles involving 1 182 patients and 631 fractures were included. The results of heterogeneity test revealed that there was statistical heterogeneity among the results of studies, thus, random effects model was used for meta-analysis. The results of meta-analysis showed that the pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnosis odds ratio for ultrasound diagnosis fracture of the distal radius and ulna were 0.95 (95%CI 0.94 to 0.97), 0.92 (95%CI 0.89 to 0.94), 9.98 (95%CI 5.20 to 19.15), 0.07 (95%CI 0.04 to 0.13), 187.94 (95%CI 65.67 to 537.84), respectively. The area under the SROC curve was 0.976 4. ConclusionUltrasound is a useful non-invasive method as a routine examination for fracture of the distal radius and ulna. Due to the limited quality and quantity of included studies, the above conclusion is needed to be validated by more high-quality studies.
