Pentraxin 3 is more accurate than C-reactive protein for Takayasu arteritis activity assessment: A systematic review and meta-analysis

AIMS: Whether the circulating levels of pentraxin 3 (PTX3), an acute phase reactant (APR), are higher in active Takayasu arteritis (TAK), and if so, whether PTX3 is more accurate than C-reactive protein (CRP) in TAK activity assessment has been investigated in this study. STUDY DESIGN: Research works such as PubMed, Embase, ScienceDirect, Cochrane Library, and two Chinese literature databases (CNKI and WanFang) were searched for studies conducted till August 30th, 2019. Two investigators searched the studies independently, who evaluated the quality of the study using the Newcastle–Ottawa scale (NOS) and extracted data. Pooled standard mean difference (SMD) and diagnostic indexes, with a 95% confidence interval (CI), were calculated using a random-effect model. RESULTS: Totally, 8 studies involving 473 TAK (208 active and 265 inactive TAK) patients and 252 healthy controls were eventually included in the meta-analysis. PTX3 level in the blood in active TAK patients were found to be higher than that in dormant TAK with pooled SMD of 0.761 (95% CI = 0.38–1.14, p<0.0001; I(2) = 68%, p of Q test = 0.003). And there was no publication bias. Among the 8 studies, 5 studies identified active TAK with both PTX3 and CRP. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, and AUC values of PTX3 in active TAK diagnosis were higher than those of CRP (0.78 [95% CI = 0.65–0.87] vs. 0.66 [95% CI = 0.53–0.77], p = 0.012; 0.85 [95% CI = 0.77–0.90] vs. 0.77 [95% CI = 0.56–0.90], p = 0.033; 0.88 [95% CI = 0.85–0.90] vs. 0.75 [95% CI = 0.71–0.79], p < 0.0001). It showed potential publication bias using Egger’s test (p of PTX3 = 0.031 and p of CRP = 0.047). CONCLUSIONS: PTX3 might be better than CRP in the assessment of TAK activity. Yet, it should be cautious before clinical use for moderate heterogeneity and potential publication bias of the meta-analysis.