Is neutrophil CD11b a special marker for the early diagnosis of sepsis in neonates? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Objectives Our study aimed to synthesise and analyse the early diagnostic value of neutrophil CD11b (nCD11b) for neonatal sepsis. Design Systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods Pubmed, Embase, the Cochrane Library and Web of Science Databases were searched up to June 2018. We used Stata software (V.14.0) to conduct the pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic OR (DOR), pretest probability, post-test probability and summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve for diagnostic efficiency of n CD11b. Results Nine studies, accounting for 843 neonates, were included. The overall pooled sensitivity, specificity, PLR, NLR, DOR, post-test positive probability and post-test negative probability and the area under the SROC curve were 0.82 (95% CI 0.71 to 0.90), 0.93 (95% CI 0.62 to 0.99), 11.51 (95% CI 1.55 to 85.62), 0.19 (95% CI 0.10 to 0.36), 59.50 (95% CI 4.65 to 761.58), 74%, 5% and 0.90, which had accuracy in diagnosing neonatal sepsis. Conclusion The present evidence indicated that nCD11b is a promising biomarker for the early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis.