Table 3.
Results of subgroup analysis
| Items | Number of studies (n) | Heterogeneity | DOR with 95% CI | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| χ2 | P | I2 (%) | DOR | LL | UL | ||
| Language | |||||||
| English | 5 | 12.39 | 0.015 | 67.7 | 4.59 | 2.43 | 8.64 |
| Chinese | 5 | 29.74 | <0.001 | 86.5 | 15.93 | 6.31 | 40.19 |
| Endpoint | |||||||
| HF | 7 | 45.87 | <0.001 | 86.9 | 11.43 | 5.22 | 25.01 |
| HFNEF | 2 | 4.52 | 0.034 | 77.9 | 4.11 | 1.13 | 14.97 |
| HFREF | 1 | – | – | – | 4.65 | 2.01 | 10.75 |
| Assay methods | |||||||
| MBL ST2 assay | 3 | 21.95 | <0.001 | 90.9 | 7.74 | 1.90 | 31.48 |
| Presage ST2 assay | 4 | 14.97 | 0.002 | 80.0 | 6.35 | 2.78 | 14.54 |
| R&D ST2 assay | 1 | – | – | – | 8.06 | 3.28 | 19.78 |
| Other ELISA kits | 2 | 21.82 | <0.001 | 95.4 | 28.12 | 0.62 | 1272.00 |
| Study quality | |||||||
| Rated “Low” <6 items | 6 | 41.26 | <0.001 | 87.9 | 11.84 | 4.63 | 30.27 |
| Rated “Low” ≥6 items | 4 | 8.89 | 0.031 | 66.3 | 5.36 | 2.81 | 10.25 |
| Characteristic of controls | |||||||
| Hospital patients | 5 | 9.50 | 0.050 | 57.9 | 5.65 | 3.34 | 9.56 |
| Healthy populations | 4 | 24.99 | <0.001 | 88.0 | 7.86 | 2.80 | 22.05 |
| Unclear | 1 | – | – | – | 206.61 | 46.24 | 923.16 |
HF: Heart failure; HFNEF: Heart failure with a normal ejection fraction; HFREF: Heart failure with reduced ejection fraction; MBL: Medical and Biological Laboratories; ELISA: Enzyme-linked immune sorbent assay; DOR: Diagnostic odds ratio; CI: Confidence interval; LL: Lower limit; UL: Upper limit.