Background: A clinical history of allergic symptoms and a skin-prick test with house-dust mite crude extracts are standard diagnostic procedures for Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus allergy. Specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) responses to Der p 1 and Der p 2 allergens have been used for the diagnosis of D. pteronyssinus allergy; however, evaluation of the diagnostic performance of Der p 1 and Der p 2 specific IgE (sIgE) produced inconsistent findings. We sought to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of Der p 1 sIgE and Der p 2 sIgE measurement in the diagnosis of D. pteronyssinus allergy by performing a systematic review and meta-analysis of previously published studies.
Methods: Several medical literature electronic data bases were searched for related literature published through August 1, 2016. A bivariate model was used to pool estimates of sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio, and area under the summary receiver operating curves as the main diagnostic measures.
Results: Eight studies, which involved 1095 patients, were included in our analysis. The pooled estimates of sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic odds ratio for Der p 1 were 0.84, 0.97, and 166.57, respectively. The combined results for Der p 2 were a sensitivity of 0.87, specificity of 1.00, and a diagnostic odds ratio of 17342.35. The areas under the summary receiver operating curves for Der p 1 sIgE and Der p 2 sIgE were 0.94 and 0.98, respectively.
Conclusion: Our results supported the use of Der p 1 and Der p 2 sIgE in the diagnosis of D. pteronyssinus allergy. Both displayed good diagnostic performance and would be useful in a clinical setting in the accurate diagnosis of dust mite allergy.