The role of circulating microRNAs for the diagnosis of hepatitis B virus-associated hepatocellular carcinoma with low alpha-fetoprotein level: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Table 3 Subgroup analysis of the diagnostic accuracy for circulating miRNA in HBV-HCC patients with low AFP

	SEN (95%CI)	SPE (95%CI)	AUC (95%CI)	number of data sets	number of HCC	number of non-HCC	heterogeneity (OR-I²)
Specimen
Serum	0.83 (0.78–0.86)	0.79 (0.69–0.86)	0.87 (0.83–0.89)	13	631	886	69.7%
Plasma	0.92 (0.52–0.99)	0.72 (0.61–0.81)	0.80 (0.77–0.84)	5	238	452	79.2%
Conference test
histology	0.85 (0.79–0.90)	0.74 (0.63–0.82)	0.88 (0.85–0.90)	12	683	684	69.0%
histology or imaging	0.79 (0.64–0.89)	0.81 (0.72–0.88)	0.87 (0.84–0.90)	6	186	654	77.2%
Study design
case-control	0.84 (0.84–0.84)	0.67 (0.67–0.67)	0.80 (0.76–0.83)	12	565	595	58.3%
cohort	0.85 (0.74–0.92)	0.89 (0.85–0.91)	0.92 (0.90–0.94)	6	304	743	48.3%
miRNAs profiling
single	0.84 (0.73–0.91)	0.66 (0.60–0.72)	0.76 (0.72–0.79)	10	435	517	56.0%
panel	0.83 (0.76–0.88)	0.86 (0.79–0.91)	0.89 (0.86–0.92)	8	434	821	63.5%
QUADAS score
≥ 9	0.85 (0.77–0.90)	0.81 (0.73–0.88)	0.90 (0.87–0.92)	8	375	545	53.8%
<9	0.83 (0.72–0.90)	0.72 (0.60–0.81)	0.85 (0.81–0.88)	10	494	793	76.2%

HBV hepatitis B virus, HCC hepatocellular carcinoma, HBV-HCC, hepatitis B virus-associated HCC, AFP alpha-fetoprotein, miRNAs microRNAs, SEN sensitivity, SPE specificity, AUC area under the curve, OR odds ratio QUADAS. Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies

ISSN: 1471-230X