Meta-Analysis on Utility of Bronchoscopy in Addition to Computed Tomography Thorax in the Investigation of Lung Cancer in Patients with Haemoptysis

Background: In patients with haemoptysis, many healthcare systems support bronchoscopy regardless of computed tomography (CT) findings. Objective: This meta-analysis aimed to address whether a normal CT alone is sufficient to out-rule lung cancer in patients with haemoptysis. Methods: A search was performed of the following databases: EBSCO (Medline), PubMed, Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, and Embase. Meta-Disc 1.4 and RevMan software were used to test for heterogeneity, risk of bias, and to summarize the test performance characteristics using forest plots and summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curves. SPSS was used to compare the diagnostic accuracy of CT and bronchoscopy. Results: A total of 14 studies (2,960 patients) were included. The pooled sensitivities for detection of lung cancer using CT scan and bronchoscopy were 0.99 (95% CI: 0.97–1.00) and 0.84 (95% CI: 0.78–0.88), respectively. The sensitivity of CT was higher than that of bronchoscopy (p < 0.001). The pooled specificities for CT scan and bronchoscopy were 0.99 (95% CI: 0.99–1.00) and 1.00 (95% CI: 0.99–1.00), respectively. Of 2,960 patients, 257 had lung cancer (8.7%) at initial investigation. 254 of these had a CT thorax, and the CT scan was false negative in 4/255 (1.6%), with bronchoscopy only identifying one cancer with a normal CT (0.4%). Conclusion: CT scan showed a higher diagnostic accuracy than bronchoscopy. This study indicated that bronchoscopy offers an insignificant additional value in the investigation of lung cancer in patients with haemoptysis and a negative CT scan.