Objective: To evaluate the dependability and accuracy of midkine (MK) in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, China Biology Medicine disc and grey literature sources were searched from the date of database inception to January 2019. Two authors (B-H.Z. and B.L.) independently extracted the data and evaluated the study quality using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies-2 tool. The sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (LR+) and negative likelihood ratio (LR-) were estimated using a bivariate model. Moreover, hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic curves were generated. The diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) and area under the curve (AUC) were pooled using a univariate model.
Results: Nine articles (11 studies) were included (1941 participants). The bivariate analysis revealed that the sensitivity and specificity of MK for HCC diagnosis were 0.85 (95% CI 0.78-0.91) and 0.83 (95% CI 0.76-0.88), respectively. We also found a LR+ of 5.05 (95% CI 3.33-7.40), a LR- of 0.18 (95% CI 0.11-0.28), a DOR of 31.74 (95% CI 13.98-72.09) and an AUC of 0.91 (95% CI 0.84-0.99). Subgroup analyses showed that MK provided the best efficiency for HCC diagnosis when the cutoff value was greater than 0.5 ng/mL.
Conclusions: MK has an excellent diagnostic value for hepatocellular carcinoma.