Nucleic acid amplification tests in the diagnosis of tuberculous pleuritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Search strategy

We searched the following databases: PubMed (1985 – January 2003), EMBASE (1988–2002), Web of Science (1990–2002), BIOSIS (1993–2002), Cochrane Library (2002; Issue 2), and LILACS (1990–2002). The Journal of Clinical Microbiology, a high-yield journal for TB diagnostic studies, was also hand-searched separately. All searches were up to date as of August 2002. The PubMed search was updated in January 2003. The search terms used were: tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, nucleic acid amplification techniques, polymerase chain reaction, sensitivity and specificity, and accuracy. Experts in the field were contacted. Bibliographies from the included studies and relevant review articles were screened. We obtained lists of citations from companies that manufacture commercial tests. Although no language restrictions were imposed initially, for the full-text review and final analysis our resources only permitted review of English and Spanish articles. Conference abstracts were excluded because of the limited data presented in them.

Study selection

Our search strategy was designed to include all published studies on NAA tests for the direct detection of M. tuberculosis in pleural fluid specimens. For inclusion, a study had to:

1. report a comparison of an NAA test against a reference standard, and provide data necessary for the computation of both sensitivity and specificity;

2. include at least 10 pleural fluid specimens (since studies with very few specimens are vulnerable to selection bias [17])

Studies on use of NAA tests on pleural biopsy and/or cytology specimens were excluded.

Two reviewers (MP and LLF) independently judged study eligibility while screening the citations. Disagreements were resolved by consensus. A list of excluded studies and a log of reasons for exclusion are available from the authors upon request.

Data extraction and quality assessment

Data extraction was performed by two reviewers. One reviewer (MP) extracted the data from all English studies. Another reviewer (LLF) extracted data from all Spanish articles. The second reviewer (LLF) also independently extracted data from a subset (36%) of the English articles, in order to determine the inter-rater agreement. The abstracted data included methodological quality, participant characteristics, test methods, and outcome data.

Quality assessment was performed using methods adapted from two guidelines on systematic reviews of diagnostic studies [17, 18]. For each study, the following quality criteria were scored as fulfilled or not: 1) Independent comparison of NAA test against reference standard; 2) Cross-sectional design (versus case-control design) ; 3) Blinded (single or double) interpretation of test and reference standard results; 4) Consecutive or random sampling of patients; 5) Prospective data collection; 6) Inclusion of at least 10 specimens/patients with confirmed tuberculous pleuritis. If no data on the above criteria were reported in the primary studies, we requested the information from the authors. For the purposes of analysis, responses coded as "not reported" were grouped together with "not met." A high quality study was arbitrarily defined as that which met at least 5/6 criteria; a medium quality met 3 or 4 of the 6 criteria; and a low quality study met less than 3/6 criteria. Since discrepant analysis (where discordant results between NAA test and reference test results are resolved, post-hoc, using clinical data) may be a potential source of bias, we preferentially included unresolved data.

Statistical analysis and data synthesis

We used standard methods recommended for meta-analyses of diagnostic test evaluations [17–19]. Analyses were performed using Meta-Test [20], and Stata version 8 (Stata Corporation, Texas). We computed the following measures of test accuracy for each study: sensitivity [true positive rate (TPR)], specificity [1-false positive rate (FPR)], positive likelihood ratio (LR+), negative likelihood ratio (LR-), and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR). These measures were pooled using the random effects model [17–19].

Each study in the meta-analysis contributed a pair of numbers: TPR and FPR. Since TPR and FPR are not independent, we summarized their joint distribution by constructing a summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve [21]. Unlike a traditional ROC plot used to explore the effect of varying thresholds (cut-points) on TPR and FPR in a single study, each data point in the SROC plot represents a separate study the meta-analysis. The SROC curve (and area under the curve) represents the overall performance of the test, and depicts the trade off between sensitivity and specificity. A symmetric curve suggests that the variability in accuracy between studies is explained, in part, by differences in thresholds employed by the studies.

Heterogeneity in meta-analyses refers to the degree of variability in results across studies. We used the Chi-square and Fisher's exact tests to detect statistically significant heterogeneity. Stratified (subgroup) analyses were used to identify study design and test-related factors responsible for heterogeneity in test accuracy. Studies using commercial tests were analyzed separately from those using in-house tests. Studies with commercial tests were further stratified by type of test (brand). Finally, since publication bias is of concern for meta-analyses of diagnostic studies [22], we tested for the potential presence of this bias using funnel plots and the Egger test [23].

Description of included studies

Figure 1 outlines our study selection process. Thirty-eight articles [24–61] were included in the meta-analysis. Four articles were in Spanish [26, 37, 39, 44]. Two articles reported evaluations of more than one NAA test against a common reference standard [30, 57]. Each such test comparison was counted as a separate study. Thus, the total number of test comparisons (hereafter referred to as studies) was 40. Of these, 14 (35%) were studies of commercial tests, and 26 (65%) were of in-house tests. The average (median) sample size of each study in the meta-analysis was 60 pleural specimens or subjects, with a range of 15 to 375.

Study characteristics and quality

Diagnostic accuracy of commercial tests

Figure 2(A) displays the sensitivity and specificity estimates from each of the 14 studies using commercial tests, stratified by type (brand) of test. Almost all studies had specificity estimates close to 1.0. In contrast, sensitivity estimates were lower and heterogeneous (range 0.20–1.0). Figure 3(A) shows the SROC curve for the commercial tests. The regression line does not trace out a typical ROC curve – the curve shows no trade-off between sensitivity and specificity. Table 3 presents the results of the meta-analysis. The summary measures of specificity and LR+ were very high and homogeneous. All other measures were highly heterogeneous.

Commercial tests use different amplification methods and target nucleic acid sequences: the Amplicor test employs PCR technology to amplify the 16s rRNA target; the LCx test employs ligase chain reaction to amplify the 38 kDa target; and the MTD test utilizes transcription-mediated amplification to amplify rRNA. To account for these differences, we further stratified commercial tests by type (brand) of test. Four of the studies evaluated the Amplicor test [28, 42, 54, 55], four the LCx test [37, 44, 46, 52], and six evaluated the MTD test [26, 33–35, 49, 61]. Stratification reduced the overall heterogeneity to some extent (Table 3 and Figure 2A). Although specificity did not vary by type of kit, sensitivity did – the Amplicor test had a lower sensitivity (0.37) than the LCx (0.72) and MTD (0.77) tests. Since 5/6 studies on the MTD test evaluated the first generation MTD-1 kit, there were insufficient numbers of MTD-2 studies to determine if the enhanced MTD-2 test (licensed for use in smear-negative respiratory specimens) performed better than the MTD-1 test.

Diagnostic accuracy of in-house tests

Figure 2(B) displays the sensitivity and specificity estimates from each of the 26 studies using in-house tests. Both sensitivity (range 0.20–1.0) and specificity (range 0.53–1.0) estimates were highly variable. All summary measures were grossly heterogeneous (Table 3) and therefore would not be appropriately summarized. The SROC curve [Figure 3(B)] displays a ROC-type trade-off between sensitivity and specificity.

Publication bias

In the subgroup with commercial tests, the Egger test was not statistically significant (p = 0.55). However, in the in-house tests subgroup the Egger test was significant (p = 0.002), with an asymmetric funnel plot (figure 4) – evidence in favour of potential publication bias.

Principal findings

The role of NAA tests has been reasonably well defined in pulmonary tuberculosis [15, 16, 65], and guidelines exist for testing of respiratory specimens [16]. In contrast, their role in the evaluation of specimens such as pleural fluid is not clear. Our results indicate that commercial NAA tests have high specificity and positive likelihood ratios. These test properties suggest a potential role for commercial tests in confirming (ruling in) the diagnosis of tuberculous pleuritis. These tests, however, have low and widely varying sensitivities – test properties that make them unhelpful in ruling out TB. Potential explanations for the low sensitivity include a low bacillary load in pleural fluid, or the presence of substances in the pleural fluid that inhibit amplification [65]. Some authors have suggested that pleural fluids should be tested with NAA methods after the specimens are adequately pre-treated to remove inhibitors [65]. All commercial kits appear to be designed to maximize only specificity. The MTD and LCx kits appear to have higher sensitivity than the Amplicor test. This comparison should be interpreted cautiously because it is based on few studies. Studies that directly compare these commercial tests (head-to-head) within the same study population are required to confirm these observations. The most important finding regarding in-house PCR is the significant heterogeneity across studies.

Clinical implications

To interpret the summary measures in a clinical context, consider a patient from a high incidence setting (e.g. countries such as Spain or Malaysia) who is estimated to have a 50% probability of pleural TB after clinical evaluation, and is evaluated with either the MTD test (LR+ of 17.4 and LR- of 0.31) or the Amplicor test (LR+ of 52.8 and LR- of 0.59). A LR+ of 17.4 for the MTD test suggests that patients with tuberculous pleuritis have a 17-fold higher chance of being MTD test positive as compared to patients without TB. If the MTD test were positive, the likelihood that this patient has TB increases from 50% to 95%, a probability that is sufficiently high to justify initiation of anti-tuberculosis treatment. A positive Amplicor test will raise the probability of TB from 50% to 97%. In contrast, if the MTD test result were negative, there is still a 24% chance that this patient has TB, probably not sufficiently low to rule out TB with confidence. In case of the Amplicor test, a negative test will reduce the probability from 50% to 40%, again not low enough to rule out TB.

Consider another patient from a low incidence setting (e.g. countries such as the USA), where the baseline probability of TB is low (e.g. 5%). If MTD test were positive, the likelihood that this patient has TB increases from 5% to 48%, a probability that justifies further investigation. A positive Amplicor test will raise the probability of TB from 5% to 75%. If the MTD^® test result were negative, the baseline probability changes from 5% to 2%, a negligible shift that is unlikely to be helpful in clinical decision-making. In case of the Amplicor test, the probability changes from 5% to 4%. These examples illustrate the impact of the baseline prevalence (pre-test probability) on predictive values of the tests.

The accuracy of in-house PCR was heterogeneous across studies, and thus meaningful summary measures of accuracy could not be determined. The clinical implications, therefore, will depend on the setting. Institutions that use in-house PCR will have to rely on local data to decide on its accuracy and clinical applicability. In general, PCR for tuberculosis is known to have poor inter-laboratory reproducibility [66].

In addition to the effect of diagnostic thresholds seen in the SROC plot, we identified two factors that were associated with heterogeneity among in-house tests: use of a case-control design, and use of the IS6110 target sequence. Case-control studies sample patients from the extreme ends of the clinical spectrum (an ideal, "extreme contrast" setting). If the sensitivity of a test is evaluated in seriously diseased subjects, and specificity in healthy individuals, both measures will overestimate the true diagnostic accuracy [67]. Empiric research suggests that case-control studies overestimate the diagnostic odds ratio by a factor of 3, when compared to cross-sectional studies [68]. Future studies of NAA tests could reduce this bias by avoiding the case-control design and recruiting consecutive series of patients in whom the test is clinically indicated (a realistic, "clinical practice" setting). The IS6110 target sequence is widely used in M. tuberculosis fingerprinting [69]. Because this target is specific to the M. tuberculosis complex, and because it is usually present as multiple copies in the genome, PCR tests using this target might be more sensitive. Further research is underway to confirm this finding, in a larger meta-analysis of in-house PCR in the diagnosis of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Previous meta-analyses of NAA test accuracy

Our data are consistent with the results of two previous meta-analyses on the accuracy of NAA tests. Sarmiento and colleagues summarized the accuracy of PCR in the diagnosis of smear-negative pulmonary TB [70]. Their meta-analysis of 50 studies showed that both sensitivity and specificity estimates were heterogeneous. They concluded that PCR is not consistently accurate enough to be routinely recommended for the diagnosis of smear-negative TB. Our previous meta-analysis of 49 studies summarized the accuracy of NAA tests in the diagnosis of tuberculous meningitis [71]. Commercial tests were found to have high overall specificity (0.98) and low sensitivity (0.56). The accuracy of in-house PCR was not determined because of heterogeneity in study results.

Limitations of the review

Our review has limitations. Our analysis lacks data on the incremental gain of NAA tests over and above the diagnostic performance achieved by using only conventional methods or other rapid tests like ADA and IFN-γ. The primary studies in our review did not report such data. Also, few studies in our review directly compared the NAA test against tests such as ADA and IFN-γ[45, 51, 59]. Only one study [59] directly compared the three tests in the same population, and showed that ADA, IFN-γand PCR were 88%, 86%, and 74% sensitive respectively, and 86%, 97%, and 90% specific respectively, for culture or biopsy-confirmed pleural TB. Since we did not include tests such as ADA and IFN-γ in our literature searches, our review cannot identify the most accurate test. Also, publication bias was a concern with the in-house tests. Exclusion of studies published in languages other than English and Spanish could have contributed to this potential bias.