Sensitivity, Sensibility and Diagnostic Accuracy of Dental Pulp Tests:

The aim of this systematic review was to investigate and compare the diagnostic accuracy including sensitivity, specificity, adjusted accuracy, adjusted positive predictive value (PPV), and adjusted negative predictive value (NPV) of cold pulp testing (CPT), electric pulp testing (EPT), laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF), and pulse oximetry (PO).Methods: Three electronic databases were searched from 1st January 2000 to 1st November 2020. True- positive, false-positive, true-negative, and false- negative values were extracted from data in each study. Sensitivity, specificity, adjusted accuracy, adjusted PPV, and adjusted NPV were calculated from those values, if not presented. A random effects model was used to calculate pooled estimates of sensitivity, specificity, adjusted accuracy, adjusted PPV, and adjusted NPV.Results: A total of 125 articles were identified, and 28 studies were included for the final review. The pooled estimates of sensitivity for CPT, EPT, LDF, and PO were 0.87, 0.72, 0.98, and 0.97, respectively.Those of specificity were 0.84, 0.93, 0.95, and 0.95, respectively. Those of adjusted accuracy were 0.84, 0.82, 0.97, and 0.97, respectively.