Data extraction Data extraction forms were used. Numerical values for the completion of 2 x 2 contingency tables were extracted when possible. Descriptive summaries were prepared for the other types of study when quantitative analysis was not feasible. Data synthesis Qualitative synthesis was used for the studies of health economics, patient outcome, therapeutic impact and diagnostic impact. Study validity was investigated by using regression techniques to incorporate biases and factors into the quantitative analysis.
Results is a bullet.
Only one study approached acceptable standards for economic evaluation. It is likely that results will depend upon the clinical application and the comparator investigation. No studies were identified that were designed specifically to address the diagnostic impact of either modality. The included studies that compared the detection performance of SCT for liver lesions with conventional CT found that SCT performed better, but disagreed about the size of lesion that was best detected. Four articles were included that measured the diagnostic performance of SCT applied to liver lesions against a gold standard, but no conclusions could be drawn from them because there was great variation among the individual studies.