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.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the diagnostic value of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid (Gd-EOB-DTPA) for liver metastases. MethodsWe searched databases including CNKI, CBM, VIP, WanFang Data, PubMed, EMbase and The Cochrane Library from January 2011 to December 2014 to collect diagnostic tests about Gd-EOB-DTPA for liver metastases. Two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias of included studies by using the QUADAS-2 (Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2) tool. Then, meta-analysis was performed by using Stata 12.0 software. ResultsA total of 15 studies from seven countries were included, involving 2 040 nodules from 701 patients. The results of meta-analysis showed that, the pooled sensitivity (Sen), specificity (Spe), positive likelihood ratio (+LR), negative likelihood ratio (-LR) and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) of Gd-EOB-DTPA for liver metastases were 0.92 (95%CI 0.89 to 0.95), 0.94 (95%CI 0.89 to 0.97), 14.51 (95%CI 8.01 to 26.28), 0.08 (95%CI 0.06 to 0.12), and 177.98 (95%CI 89.50 to 353.94), respectively. The area under curve (AUC) of SROC was 0.97 (95%CI 0.95 to 0.98). The results of subgroup analysis showed that Gd-EOB-DTPA had better Sen in nodules >10 mm than the nodules ≤10 mm in diameter (>10 mm: pooled Sen=0.97, 95%CI 0.94 to 0.99; ≤10 mm: pooled Sen=0.75, 95%CI 0.65 to 0.85; P<0.001); The 3.0T MR had better Sen in diagnosing liver metastases compared with 1.5T MR (3.0T: pooled Sen=0.95, 95%CI 0.92 to 0.97; 1.5T: pooled Sen=0.90, 95%CI 0.87 to 0.94; P<0.001). ConclusionGdEOB-DTPA is of value for the detection of liver metastases. In particular, it is of high sensitivity for the detection of nodules larger than 10 mm, and for the cases using 3.0T high-field MR system. Due to limited quantity and quality of the included studies, more high-quality studies are required to verify the above conclusion.
Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells-1 (sTREM-1) for sepsis. Methods Such databases as The Cochrane Library (Issue 4, 2012), PubMed, EMbase, CBM, CNKI, VIP and WanFang Data were searched to collect the diagnostic tests on sTREM-1 for sepsis published before April 2012. Two reviewers independently screened literature according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted the data, and assessed the methodological quality. Then, Meta-Disc software (Version 1.5) was used to conduct analyses, draw the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve, and calculate the area under curve and Q index. Results A total of 11 studies involving 1 615 patients were included. The value of sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio, area under of SROC curve, and Q index were 69%, 71%, 3.7, 0.34, 14.73, 0.875, and 0.805, respectively. Conclusion This meta-analysis shows that sTREM-1 as a single indicator has moderate accuracy for early diagnosing sepsis. It should be combined with other diagnostic indicators to further improve the sensitivity and accuracy in diagnosing sepsis.
Diagnosis is the critical component of health care and the studies of diagnostic test can provide important evidence for clinical decisions. Studies of diagnostic test are subject to different sources of bias in design, performance and reporting of studies. Therefore, researchers who understand various sources of bias can reasonably perform the diagnostic test and evaluate its quality, and will provide scientific evidences for clinical practice.
Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-D detection for the diagnosis of lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) by Meta-analysis. Methods Literatures published before August 2017 were retrieved from PubMed, Embase, China Biology Medicine database, China National Knowledge Internet, Wangfang, and VIP database to retrieve the study about VEGF-D detection for LAM. The studies were screened according to the inclusive and exclusive criteria, the data were extracted, the quality was assessed and the Meta-analysis was performed with related statistical software. Results Six primary studies were included and 521 patients met the inclusion criterion. The Meta-analysis showed the pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio and diagnostic odds ratio of 0.75 [95% confidence interval (CI) (0.70, 0.79)], 0.95 [95%CI (0.91, 0.98)], 16.20 [95%CI (8.70, 30.19)], 0.20 [95%CI (0.10, 0.40)] and 89.49 [95%CI (38.46, 208.22)], respectively. The area under the curve was 0.953 9. Conclusions VEGF-D detection showes a good diagnostic value for LAM. A positive result is more clinical meaningful compared with a negative result, helping for the confirmation of the disease.
Objective To evaluate the diagnostic value of N terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) for heart failure (HF) and the relationship between NT-proBNP and HF. Methods Applying electrochemiluminescence immunoassay on Elecsys 2 010 quantitatively detects NT-proBNP in HF patients with varing heart damage. Results ① Using 155 pg/ml as the cutoff for diagnosis of HF, the sensitivity and specificity are both 80 %, positive likelihood ratio (PLR) is more than 4.0; when NT-proBNP is more than 350 pg/ml, PLR is more than 14. ② NT-proBNP significantly increases in HF patients，and has significant difference compared with disease control group, Plt;0.05. In dilated cardiomyopathy (DCMP) and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) NT-proBNP is the highest, in coronary heart disease (CHD) and hypertension it’s the smallest. With rising NYHA classes, NT-proBNP increases exponentially. The correlation between NT-proBNP and heart function is good, rs=0.859 (Plt;0.01). Conclusions NT-proBNP for diagnosing HF has a high sensitivity and specificity and can effectively evaluate heart function. With worsening of heart damage, NT-proBNP shows exponential or linear increase.
ObjectiveTo systematically review the diagnostic value of Antibodies to hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV) in serum tested by Chemiluminescence Assay for patients with hepatitis C. MethodsSuch databases as PubMed, EMbase, The Cochrane Library (Issue 1, 2014), CBM, CNKI, VIP, and WanFang Data were searched from the date of their establishment to March 1st, 2014, and the relevant journals were also manually searched to collect the studies which evaluated the diagnostic value of anti-HCV in serum tested by chemiluminescence assay for patients with hepatitis C. Literature screening according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, data extraction and methodological quality assessment were completed by two reviewers independently. Meta-analysis was then conducted using MetaDisc 1.4 software. ResultsA total of 12 studies involving 1 252 patients were enrolled. The results of meta-analysis indicated that, the pooled sensitivity was 0.99 (95%CI 0.98 to 0.99, P=0.000 1), and the pooled specificity was 0.98 (95%CI 0.98 to 0.99, P=0.000 0). The positive likelihood ratio was 42.53 (95%CI 18.05 to 100.23, P=0.000 0) and the negative likelihood ratio was 0.02 (95%CI 0.01 to 0.03, P=0.026 2). The diagnostic odds ratio was 3 005.82 (95%CI 1 257.08 to 7 187.29, P=0.006), overall area under the curve (AUC) was 0.9 977 (SE=0.000 8), and Q* was 0.983 3 (SE=0.003 6). ConclusionAnti-HCV in serum tested by chemiluminescence assay is sensitive, specific and stable, which is suitable for extensive application in clinics.
Objective To assess the quality of diagnostic studies on detecting the tuberculosis antibody to diagnose tuberculosis.Methods CBM (1978 to 2006) and VIP (1994 to 2006) were searched; any author-claimed diagnostic studies which used the dot immunogold filtration assay (DIGFA) to detect the tuberculosis antibody and to diagnose tuberculosis were included. The Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS) was used to assess the quality of included diagnostic studies by two reviewers independently.Results Thirty-eight papers were included and assessed. We found that most of the quality items were not met with QUADAS. Most papers adopted the retrospective diagnostic case-control design. Thirty-one papers did not describe the selection criteria clearly, 18 did not describe whether all the included patients were verified by using a reference standard of diagnosis, 36 did not describe whether the index test results were interpreted without knowledge of the results of the reference standard, 37 did not report the uninterpretable/intermediate test results, and 34 did not report the withdrawals from the study.Conclusion There are few high quality studies on using DIGFA to detect tuberculosis antibody to diagnose tuberculosis.