Can cervical vascular ultrasound combined with transcranial Doppler ultrasound accurately diagnose cerebral infarction?: A protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of cervical vascular ultrasound (CVU) combined transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TDU) in the diagnosis of cerebral infarction (CI).

Methods: The following electronic databases will be sought from PUBMED, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, PSYCINFO, Web of Science, Allied and Complementary Medicine Database, WANGFANG, VIP database, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure. The search period will cover from the initial indexing to March 1, 2020 without restrictions of language and publication status. All case-controlled studies which identifying the impact of CVU combined TDU in the diagnosis of CI will be considered. Two authors will independently perform the whole process of study selection, data extraction, and quality assessment, respectively. If any disagreements occur between two authors, we will invite a third experienced author to help solve them through discussion. Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies tool will be used to check study quality, and RevMan V.5.3 software and Stata V.12.0 software will be utilized to carry out statistical analysis.

Results: This study will summarize the most recent evidence that focusing on the impact of CVU combined TDU in the diagnosis of CI.

Conclusion: This study will provide helpful evidence to determine whether CVU combined TDU is an accurate diagnosis tool for CI or not.

Systematic Review Registration: PROSPERO CRD42020171367.