OBJECTIVETo evaluate the diagnostic value of interleukin 6 for neonatal sepsis.

METHODSThe 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.

RESULTSA 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%.

CONCLUSIONSInterleukin 6 measurement is useful for the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis with a high sensitivity and specificity.