Diagnostic accuracy of digital X-ray radiogrammetry on hand bone loss for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Background: This study will aim to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of digital X-ray radiogrammetry (DXR) on hand bone loss (HBL) for rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Methods: In this study, we will search the literature from PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and WANFANG from the inception to June 1, 2019 without language restrictions. All case-controlled studies on assessing diagnostic accuracy of DXR on HBL for diagnosis of RA will be included. Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies tool will be used for eligible studies. We will apply RevMan V.5.3 software and Stata V.12.0 software for statistical analysis.

Results: We will evaluate diagnostic accuracy of DXR on HBL in patients with RA by assessing the sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, and diagnostic odds ratio.

Conclusion: This study will detect the diagnostic accuracy of DXR evaluation on HBL in patients with RA.

Systematic Review Registration: PROSPERO CRD42019139489.