The clinical value of hepatojugular reflux on congestive heart failure: A meta‐analysis

Background Hepatojugular reflux is a cardiac physical examination with a long history of use in heart failure diagnosis across many clinical settings. However, the development of new diagnostic methods has thrown the clinical role of hepatojugular reflux into question. Our meta‐analysis aimed to determine the diagnostic accuracy of hepatojugular reflux and assess its usefulness in diagnosing congestive heart failure among at‐risk patients. Methods This meta‐analysis of studies reporting diagnostic hepatojugular reflux values of patients at risk for congestive heart failure followed PRISMA guidelines. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, CENTRAL, and Google Scholar for eligible studies from inception through February 1, 2021. After QUADAS‐2 quality assessment, we conducted data synthesis using the random effects model and a hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic model. As an additional analysis, we sorted the studies by clinical setting and performed synthesis again. We submitted our protocol to PROSPERO (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews; ID No. CRD42020215004). Results The literature search provided 4121 studies for evaluation. Seven studies and their 5195 participants were deemed eligible for synthesis. Clinical diagnosis was the most frequent reference standard. Bivariate random‐effects analysis found hepatojugular reflux sensitivity of 0.12, 95% confidence interval (CI) [0.07–0.19], and specificity of 0.96, 95% CI [0.95–0.97]. The DOR was 29.7, 95% CI [18.4–45.3]. The additional analysis of the emergency settings provided a sensitivity of 0.14, 95% CI [0.12–0.17] and specificity of 0.95, 95% CI [0.93–0.96]. Conclusions Our meta‐analysis suggests that hepatojugular reflux has practical value for diagnosis of congestive heart failure with high specificity.