Background: Neutrophil CD64 (nCD64) is a promising marker for diagnosing bacterial infections. Several studies have investigated the performance of nCD64 for diagnosing neonatal sepsis and the results are variable. Interest in nCD64 for detecting serious bacterial infections is increasing rapidly.
Objectives: The aim of the present study was to carry out a meta-analysis to systematically evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of nCD64 in neonatal sepsis. As far as the authors know, no previous studies have undertaken this.
Material and methods: A review of studies from Pubmed, Embase and the Cochrane Library, from inception through June 2015, found 7 studies (involving 2213 neonates) fulfilling the inclusion criteria. These 7 studies were subjected to a bivariate meta-analysis of sensitivity and specificity and a summary receiveroperating characteristic (SROC) curve; I2 was used to test heterogeneity, and the source of heterogeneity was investigated by influence analysis and meta-regression.
Results: The pooled sensitivity and specificity were 80% (95%CI, 69-88%) and 83% (95%CI, 71-90%), respectively. The area under the SROC curve (AUC) was 0.88 (95%CI, 0.85-0.91). The studies had substantial heterogeneity (I2 = 87.1%).
Conclusions: The results showed that nCD64 is a reliable biomarker for diagnosing neonatal sepsis (AUC = 0.88).
Keywords: CD64; meta-analysis; neonatal infection; neonatal sepsis.