Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Bladder Wall Thickness for the Diagnosis of Detrusor Overactivity in Women

INTRODUCTION: A systematic review with meta-analysis was carried out to study the hypothesis that bladder wall thickness measured by ultrasound is accurate at diagnosing detrusor overactivity in women. METHOD: This meta-analysis was registered on PROSPERO. A literature search was conducted using online databases Embase, Medline, and PubMed. Quality of articles was assessed, and articles were divided into groups to reduce heterogeneity for meta-analysis. RESULTS: = 0.049. A summary receiver operator characteristic curve was used to demonstrate overall performance of ultrasound measurement of bladder wall thickness as an alternative diagnostic test of urodynamic detrusor overactivity. CONCLUSIONS: Meta-analysis has demonstrated that measurement of bladder wall thickness using ultrasound cannot be used to diagnose detrusor overactivity and can therefore not replace urodynamics in the investigation of women with lower urinary tract symptoms. The results of this meta-analysis must be viewed with the understanding that studies included showed significant heterogeneity despite efforts to reduce large variation in data.