ObjectiveTo systematic review the diagnostic value of magnetic resonance (MR) for pulmonary embolism (PE).MethodsWe electronically searched databases including EMbase, PubMed, The Cochrane Library, WanFang Data and CNKI from inception to November 2016, to collect the diagnostic studies about MR in the diagnosis of PE. Two reviewers independently screened literature according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias of included studies, and then meta-analysis was conducted using Stata 12.0 software.ResultsA total of 14 studies involving 1 042 patients were included. The pooled Sen, Spe, +LR, –LR and DOR were 0.90 (95%CI 0.83 to 0.94), 0.95 (95%CI 0.90 to 0.98), 19.8 (95%CI 8.5 to 46.1), 0.10 (95%CI 0.06 to 0.18), 189 (95%CI 69 to 521), respectively. The AUC of SROC were 0.97 (95%CI 0.95 to 0.98).ConclusionMR has a good diagnosis value for PE which can be regarded as an effective and feasible method for suspected PE patients, especially for those who has contraindication of computed tomographic pulmonary angiography.