Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB), which is the most common neurological manifestation of Lyme disease (LD), seriously impairs both the central and peripheral nervous systems. Current LNB diagnostic methods and criteria are not very effective. Recently, several studies have indicated that a high concentration of the chemokine CXC ligand 13 (CXCL13) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) could be used as a new biomarker for the diagnosis of LNB. Thus, we carried out a meta-analysis to systematically analyze the data from these studies to evaluate the value of CXCL13 as an LNB biomarker. After searching for articles in several databases, including PubMed, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), we included 7 articles in the meta-analysis with a total of 1299 patients with LNB or other neuroinflammatory diseases. From these 1299 patients, 343 patients with LNB served as the experimental group and 956 patients with other neuroinflammatory diseases or healthy individuals served as the control group. The analyses were performed using Meta-Disc1.4 statistical software. Based on the pooled specificity, sensitivity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio, and summary receiver operating characteristic curve, we found that CXCL13 indeed has a high sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing LNB, which means that it can be used as a new diagnostic biomarker for the diagnosis of LNB.
Keywords: Borrelia burgdorferi; biomarker; chemokine; lyme neuroborreliosis; meta-analysis.