title: Sensitivity and specificity of Dickkopf-1 protein in serum for diagnosing hepatocellular carcinoma: a meta-analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This meta-analysis evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of positive serum Dickkopf-1 (DKK1) for diagnosing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
  
  
  METHODS
  Articles listed on Embase, PubMed, Wanfang, Weipu Periodical Database or the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and published up to July 10, 2013, were searched in either English or Chinese. The pooled sensitivity (SEN), specificity (SPE), positive and negative likelihood ratios (PLR and NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and summary receiver operating characteristic (sROC) curve were calculated to summarize the overall test performance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Four articles (6 studies) provided DKK1 diagnostic data. The pooled SEN, SPE, PLR, NLR, DOR and area under the sROC curve of DKK1 for the diagnosis of HCC were 0.65 (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 0.52-0.76), 0.94 (95% CI, 0.82-0.98), 10.1 (95% CI, 3.68-27.74), 0.38 (95% CI, 0.28-0.51), 26.90 (95% CI, 10.45-69.19) and 0.84 (95% CI, 0.81-0.87), respectively. Three articles (5 studies) provided DKK1 and α-fetoprotein (AFP) combined test data. The pooled SEN, SPE, PLR, NLR, DOR and area under the sROC curve of combined detection for the diagnosis of HCC were 0.81 (95% CI, 0.76-0.85), 0.85 (95% CI, 0.78-0.91), 5.52 (95% CI, 3.76-8.10), 0.22 (95% CI, 0.19-0.27), 24.60 (95% CI, 17.69-34.19) and 0.88 (95% CI, 0.85-0.91), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Both DKK1 and DKK1 plus AFP had high diagnostic accuracy for diagnosis of HCC.
authors: 1 Department of Laboratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou - China.
authors: Jie
authors: J
authors: Zhang
authors: Ying
authors: Y
authors: Zhao
authors: Qin
authors: Q
authors: Yang
mesh_terms: D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000097:blood*; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: C501126:DKK1 protein, human; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D000509:alpha-Fetoproteins