Abstract
Background
Bacteraemia is a common cause of increased morbidity and mortality in critically ill
patients, but its early diagnosis and identification are complicated. The neutrophil-lymphocyte
count ratio (NLCR) has been suggested as a useful indicator for the diagnosis of bacteraemia.
We performed this meta-analysis to investigate the diagnostic accuracy of the NLCR
for bacteraemia.
Methods
We searched the PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases for
this meta-analysis. We calculated individual and pooled sensitivities and specificities.
I2 statistics and Cochran's Q test were used to evaluate heterogeneity, and the cause
of heterogeneity was explored with sensitivity analyses.
Results
In total, 8 of 1086 eligible articles were included in the present meta-analysis.
The pooled analyses revealed that the diagnostic accuracy of the NLCR in terms of
its bacteraemia sensitivity was 0.723 [95% CI: 0.660, 0.777], and its specificity
was 0.596 [95% CI: 0.556, 0.634]. The area under the summary receiver operating characteristic
curve was 0.69 [95% CI 0.65–0.73].
Conclusion
The NLCR is an easy-to-collect marker for bacteraemia. However, the NLCR is inadequate,
and only a combination of multiple biomarkers will improve its diagnostic accuracy
for bacteraemia.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: October 29, 2018
Accepted:
October 28,
2018
Received in revised form:
October 24,
2018
Received:
August 21,
2018
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 Published by Elsevier Inc.
