Table 3.
An overview of recent literatures on serum BG as a marker for PCP.
| 1st Author | Year | Journal | N (PCP+) HIV+/HIV− | Main result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maria5 | 2009 | Clin Vaccine Immunol | 23/8 | The medium BG value of PCP and NPCP group were 423 pg/mL and 60 pg/mL respectively |
| Esteves 6 | 2014 | Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis | 100/0 | The most promising cut-off levels for diagnosis of PCP were determined to be 400 pg/mL of BG and 350 U/L of LDH, which combined with clinical data presented 92.8% sensitivity, 83.9% specificity |
| Helena 7 | 2019 | BMC Infect Dis | 21/0 | Beta glucan with cut-off level 200 pg/mL combined with a positive Pneumocystis jirovecii PCR result had sensitivity and specificity of 92 and 90%, respectively in PCP diagnosis |
| Mark8 | 2011 | J Infection | 0/21 | Elevated serum b-d-glucan was a reliable indicator for PCP with a sensitivity of 0.90 and specificity of 0.89 at the 60 pg/mL cut-off |
| Salerno 9 | 2014 | Respir Med | 119/0 | BG yielded a sensitivity of 91% and specificity of 92% for PCP diagnosis at a 300 pg/mL cut-off level |
| Engsbro12 | 2019 | Med Mycol | NA | The Sensitivity and specificity were 87% and 70% when the level of BG was 95 pg/mL |
| Esteves13 | 2015 | Clin Microbiol Infect | 89/34 | BG was found to be the most reliable serologic biomarker for PCP diagnosis with sensitivity 91.1%, Specificity 71.6%, followed by KL-6, LDH and SAM. The BG/KL-6 combination test was the most accurate serologic approach for PCP diagnosis, with 94.3% sensitivity and 89.6% specificity |
| Sejal14 | 2019 | Clin infect dis | 0/53 | With PCP PCR alone as the reference method, BG (≥ 80 pg/mL) had a sensitivity of 69.8% and a specificity of 81.2% for PCP. At ≥ 200 pg/mL, in patients with a positive PCR and a compatible PCP clinical syndrome, BDG had a sensitivity and a specificity of 70% and 100% |
| Akira21 | 2011 | J Clin Microbiol | – | This meta-analysis of twelve studies for PCP from January 1966 to November 2010 showed BG had had a sensitivity of 96% and a specificity of 84% for PCP |
| Brian R22 | 2013 | AIDS | 129/0 | The sensitivity of BG for PCP in HIV-participants with respiratory symptoms was 92.8% (95% CI 87.2–96.5%), and specificity 75.0% (50.9–91.3%) at the cutoff of 80 pg/mL |
| Karageorgopoulos23 | 2013 | Clin Microbiol Infect | – | Fourteen studies were included in the meta-analysis. BG data were analysed for 357 PCP cases and 1723 controls. The average sensitivity and specificity of BG were 94.8%and 86.3%, respectively |
| Hyo-Ju24 | 2017 | Plos ONE | 0/50 | The mean ± SD of the concentration of BG in the patients with PCP were similar to those of patients with candidemia and chronic disseminated candidiasis, but higher than those of patients with invasive aspergillosis, mucormycosis and tuberculosis as well as healthy volunteers |
| J. Held25 | 2011 | Clin Microbiol Infect | 17/33 | Serum BG is an excellent diagnostic performance with a sensitivity of 98.0% and a specificity of 94%. BG did not correlate with the outcome of patients or with the P. jirovecii burden |
| Karl26 | 2018 | J Clin Microbiol | 36/74 | BG identified 66/73 patients with positive qPCR tests for an overall sensitivity of 91%, and it was negative in 25/25 controls with negative qPCR for a specificity of 100% using the predefined cut-off 11-pg/mL |
| Paul27 | 2011 | Clin Infect Dis | 173/0 | The sensitivity of b-glucan dichotomized at 80 pg/mL for the diagnosis of PCP was 92% (95% confidence interval [CI] 87–96%), and the specificity was 65% |
| Tamayo28 | 2009 | Clin Infect Dis | 111/0 | A b-d-glucan cut-off value of 23.2 pg/mL had a sensitivity of 96.4% and a specificity of 87.8% in PCP diagnosis |
| Wei-Jie29 | 2015 | J Thorac Dis | – | The meta-analysis of 13 studies estimates for serum-BG assay for definite PCP were as follows: Se 0.91 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.88–0.93]; Sp 0.75 (95% CI 0.68–0.81) |