title: [Diagnostic value of interleukin 6 for neonatal sepsis: a Meta analysis].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the diagnostic value of interleukin 6 for neonatal sepsis.
  
  
  METHODS
  The databases of CNKI, VIP, Wangfang, Pubmed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library were searched (by September 2014) to identify relevantly published studies about estimating the diagnostic value of interleukin 6 for neonatal sepsis. QUADAS tools were used for quality evaluation of the studies. A Meta analysis was performed by employing Meta Disc 1.4 and Stata11.0 software. Heterogeneity of the included articles was tested to select proper efficacy model for calculating pooled weighted sensitivity, specificity and 95%CI. Summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve was made and the area under the curve and Q(*) index were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 33 studies including 3 135 neonates were enrolled. The sensitivity and specificity of interleukin 6 for the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis were 0.79 (95%CI: 0.76-0.81) and 0.83 (95%CI: 0.81-0.85) respectively. The area under SROC curve of interleukin 6 for the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis was 0.89 and Q(*) index was 0.83. The post-test probability of diagnosing neonatal sepsis indicated by negative interleukin 6 was 5%, while that of positive interleukin 6 was 60%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Interleukin 6 measurement is useful for the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis with a high sensitivity and specificity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei 230601, China. dpf.ayfy@163.com.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Peng-Fei
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: DU
authors.forename: Dan-Dan
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Bei
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood*; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018805:Sepsis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D015850:Interleukin-6