. 2018 Sep 3;2018:7103219. doi: 10.1155/2018/7103219

Table 2.

Subgroup analysis based on different definitions of Tregs in PB of patients with SLE.

Definition of Tregs	Number of studies	Test of association			Test of heterogeneity		Egger's test
Definition of Tregs	Number of studies	SMD^a	95% CI	p value	I ²	p value	t	p
Single CD25-positive	18	−1.428	(−1.982, −0.873)	<0.001	93.4	<0.001	−4.29	0.001
CD25⁺	9	−1.512	(−2.488, −0.535)	0.002	93.9	<0.001	−4.20	0.004
CD25^bright	2	−3.495	(−9.197, 2.207)	0.230	97.9	<0.001	—	—
CD25^high	7	−1.074	(−1.830, −0.318)	0.005	92.0	<0.001	−4.28	0.008
Associated with FOXP3-positive	29	−0.043	(−0.641, 0.554)	0.887	96.3	<0.001	0.55	0.585
CD25^low/−FOXP3⁺	4	5.275	(1.415, 9.136)	0.007	98.3	<0.001	4.05	0.056
FOXP3⁺	2	1.377	(0.124, 2.631)	0.031	80.1	0.025	—	—
CD25⁺FOXP3⁺	13	−1.142	(−1.942, −0.341)	0.005	95.2	<0.001	−2.01	0.069
CD25^highFOXP3⁺	10	−0.701	(−1.283, −0.118)	0.018	89.6	<0.001	−0.63	0.544
Associated with CD127-negative	8	−1.093	(−2.002, −0.183)	0.018	92.6	<0.001	−3.05	0.022
CD25⁺CD127⁻	4	−1.128	(−1.894, −0.361)	0.004	81.0	0.001	−1.12	0.379
CD25^bright/highCD127^low/−	2	−12.392	(−37.922, 12.138)	0.341	97.5	<0.001	—	—
CD25^highCD127^low/−FOXP3⁺	2	−0.667	(−2.664, 1.331)	0.513	96.1	<0.001	—	—

PB: peripheral blood; SLE: systemic lupus erythematosus; SMD: standard mean difference; CI: confidence interval; I ²: I-squared index. ^aMagnitude of Cohen's d effect size (SMD): 0.2–0.5, small effect; 0.5–0.8, medium effect; ≥0.8, large effect.