title: Accuracy of urinary AD7c-NTP for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Alzheimer-associated neuronal thread protein (AD7c-NTP) has been reported to have high diagnostic accuracy in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine the diagnostic accuracy of urinary AD7c-NTP for the diagnosis of AD in patients with suspected AD.
  
  
  METHODS
  We searched MEDLINE (January 1950 to date) and other electronic databases (from inception to date) for diagnostic accuracy studies that compared urinary AD7c-NTP to the standard clinical diagnosis of AD. We conducted citation searches and screened the reference lists of included studies. Studies were assessed for methodological quality using QUADAS. Summary receiver operating characteristic curves were used to summarize overall test performance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nine studies met our inclusion criteria. The summary estimates of the urinary AD7c-NTP assay for probable or possible AD were as follows: SEN, 0.87 (95%CI: 0.80-0.91); SPE, 0.89 (95%CI: 0.87-0.91); PLR, 8.13 (95% CI: 6.60-10.02); and NLR, 0.15 (95% CI: 0.10-0.22). The four summary estimates of urinary AD7c-NTP assay for probable AD were 0.89 (95% CI: 0.86-0.92), 0.90 (95% CI: 0.88-0.92), 8.88 (95% CI: 7.09-11.12), and 0.12 (95% CI: 0.09-0.16), with no obvious heterogeneity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Urinary AD7c-NTP is a sensitive and specific test for the diagnosis of probable AD. However, whether urinary AD7c-NTP can be used as an early marker is still unknown.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Chinese Medicine Hospital, Penglai, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Chun-Hua
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: The First People's Hospital, Nanning, Guangxi, China.
authors.forename: Rong-Jie
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Li
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, China.
authors.forename: Ying-Dao
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, China.
authors.forename: Huai-Qing
authors.initials: HQ
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, the First Affiliated Hospital, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, China.
authors.forename: Sheng-Liang
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Shi
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000652:urine*; D006801:Humans; D016239:MEDLINE / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000652:urine*; D011643:Publishing / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012372:ROC Curve
chemical_list: C109804:AD7c-NTP; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins
keywords: AD7c-NTP; Alzheimer's disease; biomarker; meta-analysis; urine