| Studies n | Patients n | Pooled sensitivity(95% CI) | Pooled specificity(95% CI) | AUC (se) | Likelihood ratio I2 % | Chi-squared test (p-value) | |
| All studies | 13 | 1,090 | 0.73 (0.70–0.76) | 1.00 (0.99–1.00) | 0.9376 (0.046) | 75 | 30.13 (p<0.0001) |
| Outliers removed | 11 | 907 | 0.76 (0.73–0.80) | 1.00 (0.99–1.00) | 0.9199 (0.062) | 55 | 22.4 (p = 0.013) |
| Use fluoroscopy | |||||||
| Yes | 5 | 526 | 0.73 (0.68–0.78) | 0.9378 (0.081) | 60 | 9.98 (p = 0.041) | |
| No | 8 | 564 | 0.73 (0.68–0.77) | 0.9409 (0.075) | 82 | 37.9 (p<0.0001) | |
| Use guide sheath | |||||||
| Yes | 10 | 841 | 0.73 (0.69–0.76) | 0.9407 (0.051) | 78 | 40.6 (p<0.0001) | |
| No | 3 | 249 | 0.69 (0.63–0.75) | 0.9126 (0.114) | 67 | 9.16 (p = 0.027) | |
| Without VB | 11 | 1,029 | 0.72 (0.69–0.75) | 0.9483 (0.050) | 78 | 45.4 (p<0.0001) | |
| Median size | |||||||
| <25 mm | 7 | 580 | 0.71 (0.66–0.75) | 0.9356 (0.071) | 73 | 22.2 (p = 0.001) | |
| ≥25 mm | 6 | 510 | 0.75 (0.70–0.79) | 0.9364 (0.066) | 80 | 24.3 (p<0.0001) | |
| <25 mm outliers removed | 5 | 480 | 0.75 (0.70–0.80) | 0.8940 (0.124) | 27 | 5.5 (p = 0.240) | |
| Prevalence# | |||||||
| <75% | 9 | 688 | 0.70 (0.66–0.74) | 0.9127 (0.103) | 85 | 23.05 (p = 0.003) | |
| >75% | 4 | 402 | 0.83 (0.78–0.88) | 0.9338 (0.117) | 37 | 4.73 (p = 0.193) | |
| <75 % outliers removed | 8 | 588 | 0.73 (0.69–0.77) | 0.8578 (0.169) | 20 | 8.79 (p = 0.268) | |
| Reference standard | |||||||
| Histology only | 7 | 452 | 0.79 (0.75–0.84) | 0.9176 (0.103) | 33 | 9.0 (p = 0.174) | |
| Alternate means/not stated | 6 | 638 | 0.71 (0.68–0.76) | 0.9023 (0.118) | 56 | 16.1 (p = 0.025) |
AUC: area under the curve; VB: virtual bronchoscopy. #: prevalence of malignancy in lesions investigated using endobroncial ultrasound-transbronchial lung biopsies.