The Accuracy for Chlamydia Trachomatis Test by Ligase Chain Reaction: A Meta-Analysis

Objective To evaluate the accuracy of ligase chain reaction and culture for Chlamydia trachomatis test. Methods Systematic and comprehensive literatures were searched in PubMed, EMBASE, The Cochrane Library, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, China National Knowledge Infrastructure and Wanfang database, et al. The studies of ligase chain reaction diagnosis for Chlamydia trachomatis were included. The quality assessment of diagnostic accuracy studies （QUADAS） items were used to assess the quality of the included studies. The MetaAnalyst software was used to analyze the data. Results A total of 22 studies involving 16 073 participants were included. The results of meta-analysis showed that compared with the cell culture, which used considered as gold standard, the ligase chain reaction indicating a higher level of overall accuracy, the summary sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, negative likelihood ratio, diagnostic odds ratio, that the area under the summary receiver operating characteristic （SROC） curve were 0.934（95%CI 0.891~0.961）, 0.983（95%CI 0.972~0.990）, 52.88（95%CI 32.297~86.583）, 0.069（95%CI 0.043~0.110）, 1 234.549（95%CI 545.900~2 791.925） and 0.986, respectively. Conclusion The ligase chain could use as a new technology for Chlamydia trachomatis infection diagnosed, and may be of benefit for testing Chlamydia trachomatis infection.