The Diagnostic Performance of Serum αvβ6 Autoantibodies for Ulcerative Colitis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Currently, there is no single golden standard for diagnosing ulcerative colitis (UC). Now serum αvβ6 autoantibodies have shown promise as a diagnostic tool for UC. Here the aim was to determine the diagnostic performance of serum αvβ6 autoantibodies for UC.

METHODS: PubMed, the Cochrane Library, the Embase, and the Web of Science were searched comprehensively. STATA software was utilized to analyze the relevant data.

RESULTS: 9 studies from 6 articles with 1827 subjects were eligible. The summary sensitivity and specificity of serum αvβ6 autoantibodies to diagnose UC were 0.82 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.65-0.92) and 0.94 (95% CI: 0.90-0.97) with an area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.96 (95% CI: 0.94-0.97). Subgroup analysis was conducted owning to substantial heterogeneity between studies (I2  = 97% and P < 0.001). The aggregate sensitivity and specificity to diagnose UC in adults were 0.75 (95% CI: 0.61-0.86) and 0.95 (95% CI: 0.90-0.97), and when using a threshold of mean control+3SD, 0.80 (95% CI: 0.60-0.91) and 0.96 (95% CI: 0.90-0.99), respectively. Additionally, to differentiate UC from healthy participants, non-inflammatory bowel disease, and Crohn's disease, the overall specificity was 0.96, 0.88, and 0.80, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: serum αvβ6 autoantibodies, as a non-invasive tool, demonstrated good diagnostic accuracy for UC. However, their application may be limited in some immune-related disorders, and further studies are needed for validation.