Effectiveness of real-time polymerase chain reaction assay for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in pathological samples: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Table 4 Subgroup analyses by RT-PCR assay target sequence gene

RT-PCR assay genes	Summary measure of test accuracy^a (95% CI)	Test for heterogeneity
RT-PCR assay genes	Summary measure of test accuracy^a (95% CI)	(χ ²) (df = 24)	(I ²)	p value
IS6110 (n = 22; ^b12,004) AUC = 0.99
Sensitivity	0.79 (0.77–0.81)	470.30	95.50%	< 0.001
Specificity	0.98 (0.98–0.98)	150.16	86.00%	< 0.001
Positive likelihood ratio (PLR)	31.76 (20.12–50.13)	134.64	84.40%	< 0.001
Negative likelihood ratio (NLR)	0.17 (0.12–0.24)	356.22	94.10%	< 0.001
Diagnostic odds ratio (DOR)	243.69 (127.07–437.37)	141.04	85.10%	< 0.001
16S rRNA (n = 7; ^b12,074) AUC = 0.97
Sensitivity	0.69 (0.66–0.72)	45.85	86.90%	< 0.001
Specificity	0.99 (0.99–0.99)	32.10	81.30%	< 0.001
Positive likelihood ratio (PLR)	67.64 (36.40–125.70)	34.60	82.50%	< 0.001
Negative likelihood ratio (NLR)	0.29 (0.24–0.36)	19.87	69.8%	0.003
Diagnostic odds ratio (DOR)	287.19 (193.85–425.46)	9.12	34.20%	0.167
Other genes (n = 17; ^b11,870) AUC = 0.98
Sensitivity	0.82 (0.80–0.84)	413.02	96.10%	< 0.001
Specificity	0.99 (0.99–0.99)	173.35	90.80%	< 0.001
Positive likelihood ratio (PLR)	42.48 (20.66–87.36)	123.92	87.10%	< 0.001
Negative likelihood ratio (NLR)	0.22 (0.13–0.37)	498.03	96.80%	< 0.001
Diagnostic odds ratio (DOR)	234.56 (86.01–639.63)	125.08	87.20%	< 0.001

χ ² chi-squared, df degree of freedom, I ² I-squared, n number of studies, CI confidence interval, AUC area under receiver operating characteristics curve, IS6110 Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex-specific insertion sequence, 16S rRNA 16S ribosomal RNA gene of MTB, Other genes rpoB as target sequence, mpt64 gene, 81-bp rpoB gene, senX3-regX3 intergenic region, 61 genomic DNA (gDNA) samples of MTB, cytochrome P450 Cyp 141 gene
^aRandom-effects model
^bNumber of specimen

ISSN: 2046-4053