Comparison of the accuracy of neutrophil CD64, procalcitonin, and C-reactive protein for sepsis identification: a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Neutrophil CD64 is widely described as an accurate biomarker for the diagnosis of infection in patients with septic syndrome. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of neutrophil CD64, comparing it with C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT) for the diagnosis of infection in adult patients with septic syndrome, based on sepsis-2 criteria. We searched the PubMed and Embase databases and Google Scholar. Original studies reporting the performance of neutrophil CD64 for sepsis diagnosis in adult patients were retained. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and hierarchical summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve were calculated. RESULTS: We included 14 studies (2471 patients) from 2006 to 2017 in the meta-analysis. The pooled sensitivity and specificity of neutrophil CD64 for diagnosing infection in adult patients with septic syndrome were 0.87 (95% CI 0.80–0.92) and 0.89 (95% CI 0.82–0.93), respectively. The area under the SROC curve and the DOR were 0.94 (95% CI 0.92–0.96) and 53 (95% CI 22–128), respectively. There was significant heterogeneity between the studies included. Subgroup analyses showed that this heterogeneity was due to differences in sample size and the proportions of patients with sepsis included in the studies. Six studies (927 patients) compared neutrophil CD64 and CRP determinations, and six studies (744 patients) compared neutrophil CD64 and PCT determinations. The area under the SROC curve was larger for neutrophil CD64 than for CRP (0.89 [95% CI 0.87–0.92] vs. 0.84 [95% CI 0.80–0.88], P < 0.05) or PCT (0.89 [95% CI 0.84–0.95] vs. 0.84 [95% CI 0.79–0.89], P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In adult patients with septic syndrome, neutrophil CD64 levels are an excellent biomarker with moderate accuracy outperforming both CRP and PCT determinations. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13613-018-0479-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.