Correction to: A pooled analysis of the LAMP assay for the detection of Neisseria meningitidis.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

A pooled analysis of the LAMP assay for the detection of Neisseria meningitidis.

BACKGROUND: Neisseria meningitidis is a major cause of bacterial meningitis, and these infections are associated with a high mortality rate. Rapid and reliable diagnosis of bacterial meningitis is critical in clinical practice. However, this disease often occurs in economically depressed areas, so an inexpensive, easy to use, and accurate technology is needed. We performed a pooled-analysis to assess the potential of the recently developed loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for detection of meningococcus. METHODS: Pubmed, Embase, and Web of Science were searched to identify original studies that used the LAMP assay to detect meningococcus. After pooling of data, the sensitivity and specificity were calculated, a summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve was determined, and the area under the SROC curve was computed to determine diagnostic accuracy. Publication bias was assessed using Deek's funnel plot. RESULTS: We examined 14 studies within 6 publications. The LAMP assay had high sensitivity (94%) and specificity (100%) in the detection of meningococcus in all studies. The area under the SROC curve (0.980) indicated high overall accuracy of the LAMP assay. There was no evidence of publication bias. DISCUSSION: The LAMP assay has accuracy comparable to bacterial culture and PCR for detection of meningococcus, but is less expensive and easier to use. We suggest the adoption of the LAMP assay to detect meningococcus, especially in economically depressed areas.

The clinical diagnostic value of Xpert MTB/RIF for the detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in gastric aspirates.

BACKGROUND: At present, the infection and prevalence rates of tuberculosis (TB) are still high in worldwide. The Xpert MTB/RIF technology has improved the diagnosis speed of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) and facilitated the rapid treatment of TB patients. METHODS: We searched experimental data derived from Xpert MTB/RIF for detecting MTB in gastric aspirates in PubMed, Embase, Web Of Science, and the Cochrane Library databases between January 2012 to April 2019. A summary receiver operating characteristic curve (SROC curve) was used to analyze the pooled sensitivity, pooled specificity, PLR, NLR, and DOR for determining the accuracy of the test. RESULTS: Our database search resulted in 10 relevant articles. The pooled sensitivity of Xpert MTB/RIF for detecting TB in GA was 86% (95% CI, 83-89%), and I2 = 93.4%. The pooled specificity was 92% (95% CI, 90-93%) and I2 = 97.8%. In addition, the positive LR was 12.12 (95% CI, 5.60-26.21), negative LR was 0.20 (95% CI, 0.11-0.36), and the diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) was 147.04 (95% CI, 37.20-581.19). Using the SROC curve, the AUC was 0.9730 and Q* was 0.9248 (SE = 0.0261). The publication bias was P=0.517 (P>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The Xpert MTB/RIF for detecting MTB in gastric aspirates was highly accurate. In addition, we observed that the publication bias in the present study was low. Hence, the Xpert MTB/RIF technology is highly accurate and has the advantage of rapid testing for MTB in clinical samples.

Pooled analysis of the Xpert MTB/RIF assay for diagnosing tuberculous meningitis.

BACKGROUND: Tuberculous meningitis (TBM) is one of the most serious types of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. However, low sensitivity of culture of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) increases the difficulty in clinical diagnosis, leading to diagnostic delay, and misdiagnosis. Xpert MTB/RIF assay is a rapid and simple method to detect tuberculosis. However, the efficacy of this technique in diagnosing TBM remains unclear. Therefore, a meta-analysis was conducted to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of Xpert MTB/RIF for TBM, which may enhance the development of early diagnosis of TBM. METHODS: Relevant studies in the PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases were retrieved using the keywords 'Xpert MTB/RIF', 'tuberculous meningitis (TBM)'. The pooled sensitivity, pooled specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio, summary receiver operator characteristic curve, and area under the curve (AUC) of Xpert MTB/RIF were determined and analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 162 studies were enrolled and only 14 met the criteria for meta-analysis. The overall pooled sensitivity of Xpert MTB/RIF was 63% [95% confidence interval (CI), 59-66%], while the overall pooled specificity was 98.1% (95% CI, 97.5-98.5%). The pooled values of positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, and diagnostic odds ratio were 20.91% (12.71-52.82%), 0.40% (0.32-0.50%), and 71.49% (32.64-156.56%), respectively. The AUC was 0.76. CONCLUSIONS: Xpert MTB/RIF exhibited high specificity in diagnosing TBM in CSF samples, but its sensitivity was relatively low. It is necessary to combine other high-sensitive detection methods for the early diagnosis of TBM. Moreover, the centrifugation of CSF samples was found to be beneficial in improving the sensitivity.