PurposeA comprehensive systematic review of the literature was conducted on parameters from 18 F-FDG PET and a meta-analysis of the prognostic value of the maximal standard uptake value (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesional glycolysis (TLG) in patients with breast cancer (BC).Patients and methodsRelevant English articles from PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library were retrieved. Pooled hazard ratios (HRs) were used to assess the prognostic value of SUVmax, MTV, and TLG.ResultsA total of 20 primary studies with 3115 patients with BC were included. The combined HRs (95% confidence interval [CI] of higher SUVmax and higher TLG for event-free survival (EFS) were 1.53 (95% CI, 1.25–1.89, P = 0.0006) and 5.94 (95% CI, 2.57–13.71, P = 0.97), respectively. Regarding the overall survival (OS), the combined HRs were 1.22 (95%CI, 1.02–1.45, P = 0.0006) with higher SUVmax, and 2.91(95% CI, 1.75–4.85, P = 0.44) with higher MTV. Higher MTV showed no correlation with EFS [1.31(95% CI, 0.65–2.65, P = 0.18)] and similarly higher TLG showed no correlation with OS [1.20(95% CI, 0.65–2.23, P = 0.45)]. Subgroup analysis showed that SUVmax, with a median value of 5.55 was considered as a significant risk factor for both EFS and OS in BC patients.ConclusionDespite clinically heterogeneous BC patients and adoption of various methods between studies, the present meta-analysis results confirmed that patients with high SUVmax are at high risk of adverse events or death in BC patients, high MTV predicted a high risk of death and high TLG predicted a high risk of adverse events.

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Background:Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common type of heart arrhythmia, but the impact of long-term, high-intensity endurance exercise on the risk of AF remains uncertain.Methods:PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane library databases were searched till Nov 2017 to retrieve the articles. The included studies were summarized, pooled odds ratio (OR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated. Both fixed and random effects models were used to combine the data. Stratified and logistic meta-regression analyses were performed to explore the sources of heterogeneity across studies.Results:Nine studies including 2308 athletes and 6593 controls were eligible. Our results showed that the risk of AF was significantly higher in athletes than in general population (OR = 2.34, 95% CI = 1.04–5.28, Pheterogeneity<.001, I2 = 92.3%). Subgroup analysis based on gender and mean age demonstrated a significantly increased risk in men (OR = 4.03, 95% CI = 1.73–9.42, Pheterogeneity<.001, I2 = 82.7%) and participants with mean age <60 (OR = 3.24, 95% CI = 1.23–8.55, Pheterogeneity<.001, I2 = 84.3%). Furthermore, subgroup analysis based on type of athletes demonstrated a significantly increased risk of AF in participants with single type of sport (OR = 3.97, 95% CI = 1.16–13.62, Pheterogeneity = .018, I2 = 70.4%). Results remained unchanged after performing sensitivity analysis. Meta-regression showed that gender, age, type of study, sample size, and sports mode were unrelated to heterogeneity.Conclusion:Our study confirmed that the risk of AF was significantly higher in athletes than in general population, especially among men and participants aged <60.

Purpose: We present a comprehensive systematic review of the documented literature on parameters derived from 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG PET) and meta-analysis of the prognostic value of maximal standard uptake value (SUVmax), metabolic tumor volume (MTV) and total lesional glycolysis (TLG) in patients with renal carcinoma (RCC). Patients and methods: Relevant articles in English from PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library were retrieved. Pooled hazard ratio (HR) values were used to assess the prognostic value of SUVmax, MTV, and TLG. Results: A total of 10 primary studies involving 780 patients with RCC were included. The combined HRs for event-free survival were 1.32 (95% CI 1.10–1.58) for SUVmax, 2.40 (95% CI 1.20–4.79) for MTV, and 3.31 (95% CI 1.68–6.50) for TLG. Pooled HRs for overall survival were 1.264 (95% CI 1.124–1.421) for SUVmax, 3.52 (95% CI 1.451–8.536) for MTV, and 6.33 (95% CI 1.32–30.30) for TLG. Subgroup analysis revealed SUVmax as an independent risk factor for patients with recurrence or metastasis. Conclusion: The present meta-analysis confirmed that despite the clinical heterogeneity of RCC and adoption of various methods between studies, high SUVmax is a significant prognostic factor, especially in patients with recurrence or metastasis. MTV and TLG were associated with prediction of higher risk of adverse events or death in patients with RCC.