Is fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography useful for the thyroid nodules with indeterminate fine needle aspiration biopsy? a meta-analysis of the literature

Table 1 The characteristics of these 7 studies

Study	Year	Country	Design	Modality	No. of patients	Male/Female	Age (Mean ± SD)
Kresnik [10]	2003	Austria	NR	PET	37	8/29	55.1 ± 13.8
de Geus-Oei [11]	2006	Netherlands	Prospective	PET	44	3/41	48.5 ± 13.8
Sebastianes [12]	2007	Brazil	NR	PET	42	4/38	45.3 ± 16.3
Hales [13]	2008	America	Prospective	PET/CT	15	1/14	47.5 ± 14.9
Smith [14]	2008	America	Prospective	PET	23	7/16	50*
Traugott [15]	2010	America	Prospective	PET, PET/CT	51	10/41	49.6 ± 10.6
Deandreis [16]	2012	France	Prospective	PET/CT	55	13/42	50.7 ± 10.5

NR not reported, SD the standard deviation; * The SD of the study was not reported.

ISSN: 1916-0216