Diagnostic value of cerebrospinal fluid chemokine c-x-c motif ligand 13 for neurosyphilis: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The diagnostic value of cerebrospinal fluid chemokine c-x-c motif ligand 13 (CSF CXCL13) for neurosyphilis was assessed by meta-analysis in this study. PubMed, Web of Science and Embase databases were searched to identify relevant articles by using MeSH and free terms of CXCL13 and neurosyphilis. A total of 720 syphilis and 338 neurosyphilis individuals in 6 articles were involved in this meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity and specificity were 0.82 (95% confidence intervals (CI), 0.77-0.87) and 0.84 (95% CI, 0.79-0.87). The pooled positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio and the area under receiver operating characteristic curve were 5.10 (95% CI, 3.90-6.60), 0.21 (95% CI, 0.16-0.28), 24.00 (95% CI, 14.00-39.00) and 0.88 (95% CI, 0.84-0.90), respectively. In subgroup analysis, human immunodeficiency virus infection and diagnostic criteria for neurosyphilis were identified to be associated with heterogeneity. Based on limited evidence, CSF CXCL13 can be helpful in diagnosing neurosyphilis.