Objective To evaluate the diagnostic performance of black-blood MRI (BB-MRI) in detecting cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT). Methods This study was registered in PROSPERO ID: CRD42024556451. The PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus, and Embase databases were searched for studies evaluating the performance of BB-MRI in diagnosing CVT. Studies were selected based on predefined eligibility criteria. The risk of bias was assessed using the QUADAS-2 tool. Meta-analysis was performed using a bivariate random-effects model to calculate pooled sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve (AUC). Results Nine studies fulfilled the eligibility criteria and were included in the review; however, two studies insufficiently reported quantitative data. Thus, seven studies involving 176 CVT patients and 217 controls, encompassing 610 thrombosed and 3279 normal cerebral venous segments, were included in the meta-analysis. The studies demonstrated a high risk of bias in the patient selection and reference standard domains. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of BB-MRI were 96% 95% CI: 92%–98% and 96% 95% CI: 93%–98% on a patient-based level, and 92% 95% CI: 87%–95% and 98% 95% CI: 92%–99% on a venous-segment-based level, respectively. The AUC was 0.98 for patient-based data and 0.96 for venous-segment-based data. Conclusions BB-MRI demonstrates a significant potential as a diagnostic method for CVT. However, further comparative studies are needed to define its role in the diagnostic workup of patients suspected of having CVT.
Milani et al. (Sun,) studied this question.