The overall diagnostic capabilities and utility of frequency-doubling technology (FDT) in patients with primary glaucoma,
which was diagnosed by standard automated perimetry (SAP) and/or optic disc appearance as the gold standard, were assessed.
A comprehensive electric retrieval in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, BIOSIS, Previews, HMIC, IPA, OVID, CNKI, CBMdisc,
VIP information, CMCC, CCPD, SSreader, 21dmedia and manual retrieval in related textbooks, journals, congress articles and
their references at home and abroad were performed to identify relevant articles in English or Chinese. The corresponding
references were retrieved by means of electric retrieval and manual retrieval from different databases or materials. Criteria
for inclusion or exclusion were established according to validity criteria for diagnostic studies published by the Cochrane
Methods Group on Screening and Diagnostic Tests. The quality of the included articles was then assessed and characteristics
were extracted. Statistical analysis was performed with Meta Test version 0.6 software to test the heterogeneity of the included
articles. The appropriate effects model was selected to calculate pooled weighted sensitivity and specificity. Summary receiver
operating characteristic (SROC) curve was drawn and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated. Finally, sensitivity analysis
was performed. Twenty-one studies out of 206 retrieved articles were included, with a total of 3172 patients. The reported
sensitivity of FDT ranged from 0.51 to 1.00, and specificity from 0.58 to 1.00. The pooled weighted sensitivity and specificity
of FDT with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) after correction for standard error were 0.86 (0.80–0.90) and 0.87 (0.81–0.91),
respectively. The AUC of SROC was 93.01%. Sensitivity analysis demonstrated no disproportionate influences of individual studies.
The included articles are of good quality and FDT can be a highly efficient diagnostic test for primary glaucom a based on
Meta-analysis.
Keywords glaucoma - perimetry - systems analysis
Translated from Chin J Ophthalmol, 2006, 42(5): 403–408 [译自: 中华眼科杂志]