scholarly journals Clinical Utility of Molecular Tests for Guiding Therapeutic Decisions in Bloodstream Staphylococcal Infections: A Meta-Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ke Chen ◽  
Aijaz Ahmad Malik ◽  
Yun-Jian Sheng ◽  
Sarfraz Ahmed ◽  
Changfeng Sun ◽  
...  

Background: Treatment of bloodstream staphylococcal infections (BSI) necessitates the prompt initiation of appropriate antimicrobial agents and the rapid de-escalation of excessive broad-spectrum coverage to reduce the risk of mortality. We, therefore, aimed to demonstrate the diagnostic accuracy of nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) for the identification of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and methicillin-sensitive S. aureus (MSSA) in clinically suspected patients.Methods: Until November 23, 2020, databases including PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science were scanned for eligible studies. A bivariate random-effects model was used for meta-analysis of the 33 included studies obtained from 1606 citations, and pooled summary estimates with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were generated.Results: Twenty-three studies (n = 8,547) assessed NAAT accuracy for MSSA detection, while three studies (n = 479) evaluated MRSA detection in adults. The pooled NAAT sensitivity and specificity for MRSA in adults was higher [sensitivity: 0.83 (95% CI 0.59–0.96), specificity: 0.99 (95% CI 0.98–1.0)] as compared to MSSA [sensitivity: 0.76 (95% CI 0.69–0.82), specificity: 0.98 (95% CI 0.98–0.99)]. Similarly, eight studies (n = 4,089) investigating MSSA in pediatric population reported higher NAAT accuracy [sensitivity: 0.89 (95% CI 0.76–0.96), specificity: 0.98 (95% CI 0.97–0.98)] compared to adults. Among NAA tests, SeptiFast (real-time PCR, commercial) was frequently applied, and its diagnostic accuracy corresponded well to the overall summary estimates. A meta-regression and subgroup analysis of study design, sample condition, and patient selection method could not explain the heterogeneity (P > 0.05) in the diagnostic efficiency.Conclusions: NAAT could be applied as the preferred initial tests for timely diagnosis and BSI management.

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily MacLean ◽  
Giorgia Sulis ◽  
Claudia M. Denkinger ◽  
James C. Johnston ◽  
Madhukar Pai ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Invasive collection methods are often required to obtain samples for the microbiological evaluation of children with presumptive pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). Nucleic acid amplification testing of easier-to-collect stool samples could be a noninvasive method of diagnosing PTB. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of testing stool with the Xpert MTB/RIF assay (“stool Xpert”) for childhood PTB. Four databases were searched for publications from January 2008 to June 2018. Studies assessing the diagnostic accuracy among children of stool Xpert compared to a microbiological reference standard of conventional specimens tested by mycobacterial culture or Xpert were eligible. Bivariate random-effects meta-analyses were performed to calculate pooled sensitivity and specificity of stool Xpert against the reference standard. From 1,589 citations, 9 studies (n = 1,681) were included. Median participant ages ranged from 1.3 to 10.6 years. Protocols for stool processing and testing varied substantially, with differences in reagents and methods of homogenization and filtering. Against the microbiological reference standard, the pooled sensitivity and specificity of stool Xpert were 67% (95% confidence interval [CI], 52 to 79%) and 99% (95% CI, 98 to 99%), respectively. Sensitivity was higher among children with HIV (79% [95% CI, 68 to 87%] versus 60% [95% CI, 44 to 74%] among HIV-uninfected children). Heterogeneity was high. Data were insufficient for subgroup analyses among children under the age of 5 years, the most relevant target population. Stool Xpert could be a noninvasive method of ruling in PTB in children, particularly those with HIV. However, studies focused on children under 5 years of age are needed, and generalizability of the evidence is limited by the lack of standardized stool preparation and testing protocols.


2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Pormohammad ◽  
Mohammad Javad Nasiri ◽  
Timothy D. McHugh ◽  
Seyed Mohammad Riahi ◽  
Nathan C. Bahr

ABSTRACTThe diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is difficult and poses a significant challenge to physicians worldwide. Recently, nucleic acid amplification (NAA) tests have shown promise for the diagnosis of TBM, although their performance has been variable. We undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of NAA tests with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples against that of culture as the reference standard or a combined reference standard (CRS) for TBM. We searched the Embase, PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases for the relevant records. The QUADAS-2 tool was used to assess the quality of the studies. Diagnostic accuracy measures (i.e., sensitivity and specificity) were pooled with a random-effects model. All statistical analyses were performed with STATA (version 14 IC; Stata Corporation, College Station, TX, USA), Meta-DiSc (version 1.4 for Windows; Cochrane Colloquium, Barcelona, Spain), and RevMan (version 5.3; The Nordic Cochrane Centre, the Cochrane Collaboration, Copenhagen, Denmark) software. Sixty-three studies comprising 1,381 cases of confirmed TBM and 5,712 non-TBM controls were included in the final analysis. These 63 studies were divided into two groups comprising 71 data sets (43 in-house tests and 28 commercial tests) that used culture as the reference standard and 24 data sets (21 in-house tests and 3 commercial tests) that used a CRS. Studies which used a culture reference standard had better pooled summary estimates than studies which used CRS. The overall pooled estimates of sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), and negative likelihood ratio (NLR) of the NAA tests against culture were 82% (95% confidence interval [CI], 75 to 87%), 99% (95% CI, 98 to 99%), 58.6 (95% CI, 35.3 to 97.3), and 0.19 (95% CI, 0.14 to 0.25), respectively. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, PLR, and NLR of NAA tests against CRS were 68% (95% CI, 41 to 87%), 98% (95% CI, 95 to 99%), 36.5 (95% CI, 15.6 to 85.3), and 0.32 (95% CI, 0.15 to 0.70), respectively. The analysis has demonstrated that the diagnostic accuracy of NAA tests is currently insufficient for them to replace culture as a lone diagnostic test. NAA tests may be used in combination with culture due to the advantage of time to result and in scenarios where culture tests are not feasible. Further work to improve NAA tests would benefit from the availability of standardized reference standards and improvements to the methodology.


2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia-Jin Chen ◽  
Pei-Chun Fan ◽  
George Kou ◽  
Su-Wei Chang ◽  
Yi-Ting Chen ◽  
...  

Background: Urinary calprotectin is a novel biomarker that distinguishes between intrinsic or prerenal acute kidney injury (AKI) in different studies. However, these studies were based on different populations and different AKI criteria. We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of urinary calprotectin and compared its diagnostic performance in different AKI criteria and study populations. Method: In accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, we searched PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane database up to September 2018. The diagnostic performance of urinary calprotectin (sensitivity, specificity, predictive ratio, and cutoff point) was extracted and evaluated. Result: This study included six studies with a total of 502 patients. The pooled sensitivity and specificity were 0.90 and 0.93, respectively. The pooled positive likelihood ratio (LR) was 15.15, and the negative LR was 0.11. The symmetric summary receiver operating characteristic (symmetric SROC) with pooled diagnostic accuracy was 0.9667. The relative diagnostic odds ratio (RDOC) of the adult to pediatric population and RDOCs of different acute kidney injury criteria showed no significant difference in their diagnostic accuracy. Conclusion: Urinary calprotectin is a good diagnostic tool for the discrimination of intrinsic and prerenal AKI under careful inspection after exclusion of urinary tract infection and urogenital malignancies. Its performance is not affected by different AKI criteria and adult or pediatric populations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 467-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junzhong Liu ◽  
Zhongfeng Chen ◽  
Tianyu Wang ◽  
Li Liu ◽  
Lei Zhao ◽  
...  

Background/Aims: To date, several positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) radiotracers including fluorine-18 fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG), carbon-11 labeled choline (11C-choline), 18-F fluorocholine (18F-FCH) and carbon-11 acetate (11C-acetate) have already been assessed in the application of prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis to some extent, the diagnostic efficiency of these radiotracers still remain controversial. As a result of this, we carried out this meta-analysis for the purpose of comparing the diagnostic accuracy among four PET/CT radiotracers. Methods: A systematical literature search for articles was performed until July 3, 2015. We implemented all analysis using the statistical software of STATA12 and quality assessment was performed using QUADAS-2. Results: A total of 56 studies containing 3,586 patients were included in this meta-analysis. Parameter estimates of the overall analysis are as follows: sensitivity, 0.80 (95% CI: 0.74-0.85); specificity, 0.84 (95% CI: 0.77-0.89) and area under roc curve-AUC of SROC, 0.89 (95% CI: 0.86-0.91), indicating a relatively high level of accuracy in diagnosis of PCa. When different radiotracers of PET/CT were compared, 18F-FCH-PET/CT was ranked as the most favorable with the highest value of AUC (AUC = 0.94; 95% CI: 0.92-0.96) whereas 18F-FDG was the least favorable (AUC = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.69-0.77). Conclusion: This study suggested that PET/CT imaging plays an invaluable role in the diagnosis of PCa and 18F-FCH-PET/CT was considered as a superior diagnostic tool over other radiotracers. More attention should be paid to the diagnostic efficiency of the four radiotracers particularly for PCa patients with different clinical stages.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0243765
Author(s):  
Yanqin Shen ◽  
Likui Fang ◽  
Bo Ye ◽  
Guocan Yu

Background Abdominal tuberculosis is a severe extrapulmonary tuberculosis, which can lead to serious complications. Early diagnosis and treatment are very important for the prognosis and the diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis is still difficult. This study aims to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) for abdominal tuberculosis using meta-analysis method. Methods We will search PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and the Wanfang database for studies evaluating the diagnostic accuracy of NAATs for abdominal tuberculosis until May 2020. We will include a systematic review and meta-analysis that evaluated the accuracy of NAATs for abdominal tuberculosis. Any types of study design with full text will be sought and included. The risk of bias will be assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies tool. Stata version 15.0 with the midas command packages will be used to carry out meta-analyses. Results The results will provide clinical evidence for diagnostic accuracy of NAATs for abdominal tuberculosis, and this systematic review and meta-analysis will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication. Conclusion This overview will provide evidence of NAATs for diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis. Systematic review registration INPLASY202060030.


2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ke Chen ◽  
Sarfraz Ahmed ◽  
Yun-Juan Sheng ◽  
Changfeng Sun ◽  
Cun-Liang Deng ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Timely and accurate methods for detecting Clostridium perfringens-associated diseases (CPAD) are crucial to improve patient care. A number of studies have evaluated the accuracy of nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) in detecting CPAD, but decisive results about their effectiveness have not been reported. We conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic performance of NAAT for detecting C. perfringens in clinical diarrheal samples. Five databases including PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and the Cochrane library were systematically probed for studies published before 6 December 2019. From 2,632 citations, we identified five eligible studies comprising 817 samples. Three studies (n = 695 samples) compared NAAT with a microbiological culture while the other three studies (n = 322 samples) compared NAAT with an immunoassay. NAAT revealed higher diagnostic accuracy against immunoassay (sensitivity, 0.53 [95% confidence interval [CI], 0.35 to 0.7]; specificity, 0.97 [95% CI, 0.95 to 0.99]; positive likelihood ratio [PLR], 23.2 [95% CI, 3.49 to 153.98]; negative likelihood ratio [NLR], 0.25 [95% CI, 0 to 245.28]; diagnostic odds ratio [DOR], 74.11 [95% CI, 2.11 to 2,593.7]) than microbiological culture (sensitivity, 0.31 [95% CI, 0.22 to 0.41]; specificity, 0.95 [95% CI, 0.93 to 0.97]; PLR, 11.56 [95% CI, 3.87 to 34.6]; NLR, 0.57 [95% CI, 0.27 to 1.21]; DOR, 18.1 [95% CI, 4.83 to 67.8]). NAAT pooled specificity was consistently ≥95% against that of applied reference standards. A meta-regression and subgroup analysis of sample condition, gene target, study design, and reference standards could not explain the heterogeneity (P > 0.05) in the diagnostic efficiency. The analysis has demonstrated that the diagnostic accuracy of NAAT is relatively insufficient to replace traditional reference standards as a single diagnostic test. NAAT can be applied in combination with microbiological culture because of the advantage of time to result and in scenarios where traditional tests are not feasible. Further investigations in this direction with larger sample sizes are still warranted to support our findings.


Author(s):  
Hai-Ran Ma ◽  
Jing Liu ◽  
Wen-Kang Yan

Objective Transient tachypnoea of the newborn (TTN) is one of the most common causes of neonatal respiratory distress (RD) during the newborn period. Chest radiography (CXR) is commonly used to rule out the diagnosis, but TTN is often misdiagnosed as neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (NRDS) on the basis of CXR alone. Increasing evidence suggests that lung ultrasound (LUS) may be a reliable diagnostic tool for transient tachypnoea of the newborn. However, studies of the diagnostic efficiency of LUS are still lacking. This study was aimed to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of LUS for diagnosing TTN by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis. Study Design We searched for articles in the Embase, PubMed, and Cochrane Library databases from inception until May 31, 2020. The selected studies were diagnostic accuracy studies that reported the utility of LUS in the diagnosis of TTN. Two researchers independently extracted data and assessed quality using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 (QUADAS-2) tool. Then, we created a bivariate model of mixed effects to calculate the sensitivity and specificity of LUS in diagnosing TTN. A summary receiver operator characteristic (SROC) curve was constructed to summarize the performance characteristics of LUS. Results Six studies involving 617 newborns were included in the review. LUS had a pooled sensitivity of 0.98 (confidence interval [CI]: 0.92–1.00) and a specificity of 0.99 (CI: 0.91–1.00). The area under the curve for LUS was 1.00 (0.98–1.0). Meta-regression revealed that LUS had a significant diagnostic accuracy for TTN. Conclusion The performance of ultrasound for the detection of TTN was excellent. Considering the various advantages of LUS compared with chest radiographs in diagnosing TTN, this study supports the routine use of LUS for the detection of TTN. Key Points


2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Colleen S. Kraft ◽  
J. Scott Parrott ◽  
Nancy E. Cornish ◽  
Matthew L. Rubinstein ◽  
Alice S. Weissfeld ◽  
...  

SUMMARY The evidence base for the optimal laboratory diagnosis of Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile in adults is currently unresolved due to the uncertain performance characteristics and various combinations of tests. This systematic review evaluates the diagnostic accuracy of laboratory testing algorithms that include nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) to detect the presence of C. difficile. The systematic review and meta-analysis included eligible studies (those that had PICO [population, intervention, comparison, outcome] elements) that assessed the diagnostic accuracy of NAAT alone or following glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) or GDH EIAs plus C. difficile toxin EIAs (toxin). The diagnostic yield of NAAT for repeat testing after an initial negative result was also assessed. Two hundred thirty-eight studies met inclusion criteria. Seventy-two of these studies had sufficient data for meta-analysis. The strength of evidence ranged from high to insufficient. The uses of NAAT only, GDH-positive EIA followed by NAAT, and GDH-positive/toxin-negative EIA followed by NAAT are all recommended as American Society for Microbiology (ASM) best practices for the detection of the C. difficile toxin gene or organism. Meta-analysis of published evidence supports the use of testing algorithms that use NAAT alone or in combination with GDH or GDH plus toxin EIA to detect the presence of C. difficile in adults. There is insufficient evidence to recommend against repeat testing of the sample using NAAT after an initial negative result due to a lack of evidence of harm (i.e., financial, length of stay, or delay of treatment) as specified by the Laboratory Medicine Best Practices (LMBP) systematic review method in making such an assessment. Findings from this systematic review provide clarity to diagnostic testing strategies and highlight gaps, such as low numbers of GDH/toxin/PCR studies, in existing evidence on diagnostic performance, which can be used to guide future clinical research studies.


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