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Diagnostic Value of Intestinal Fatty-Acid-Binding Protein in Necrotizing Enterocolitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

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Abstract

The present study was undertaken to evaluate the performance of intestinal fatty-acid-binding protein (i-FABP) in the diagnosis of newborn necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) and prediction of surgical NEC. A comprehensive literature search was performed in PubMed and EMBASE to identify potential relevant studies. QUADAS-2 tool was used to assess the quality of the included studies. The sensitivity, specificity and other measurements of accuracy of i-FABP were pooled. Summary receiver operating characteristic curves (SROC) and area under the curve (AUC) were used to summarize overall diagnostic performance. After screening 150 titles and abstracts, followed by 32 full-text publications, 14 studies were included. The sample size, sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and AUC were: plasma i-FABP 217, 0.64(95% CI 0.53 to 0.74), 0.91(95% CI 0.84 to 0.95), 14.22 (95%CI 6.42 to 31.52) and 0.84; urinary i-FABP 211, 0.64(95% CI 0.53 to 0.74), 0.73(95% CI 0.64 to 0.80), 6.35 (95%CI 3.17 to 12.72) and 0.81; urinary i-FABP/Cr 165, 0.78(95% CI 0.65 to 0.88), 0.75(95% CI 0.65 to 0.82), 6.35 (95%CI 3.17 to 12.72) and 0.81; plasma i-FABP for surgical NEC 45, 0.71(95% CI 0.51 to 0.87), 0.76(95% CI 0.50 to 0.93), 7.58 (95%CI 0.87 to 65.82) and 0.80. Plasma i-FABP is a promising biomarker in the diagnosis of NEC with high specificity and DOR; but its usefulness is limited because of medium sensitivity. The urinary i-FABP and urinary i-FABP/Cr add little value in the diagnosis. The findings were somewhat limited by the quality and small size of some of the studies included.

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Contributions

GY: Literature search, evaluation of studies, data analysis; YW: Evaluation of studies; GY and YW: Wrote the article; XJ: Guided the research and will act as guarantor for the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatric Surgery, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37 Guo Xue Xiang, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610041, People’s Republic of China

    Gang Yang & Xiaoping Jiang

  2. Department of Hematology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610041, People’s Republic of China

    Yingli Wang

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  1. Gang Yang
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  2. Yingli Wang
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Correspondence to Xiaoping Jiang.

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Yang, G., Wang, Y. & Jiang, X. Diagnostic Value of Intestinal Fatty-Acid-Binding Protein in Necrotizing Enterocolitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Indian J Pediatr 83, 1410–1419 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-016-2144-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12098-016-2144-9

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