TABLE 1.

The result of meta-regression and subgroup analysis for ITR.

Category	No. of trails	Sensitivity (95% CI)	Specificity (95% CI)	I2 (%)	P	AUSROC
Region
Developed country	6	0.70 [0.50–0.90]	0.84 [0.72–0.95]	0	0.92	0.86 [0.82–0.88]
Developing country	31	0.74 [0.67–0.82]	0.83 [0.77–0.88]			0.85 [0.82–0.88]
Predesign
Prospective	34	0.75 [0.68–0.82]	0.81 [0.76–0.87]	50	0.13	0.85 [0.82–0.88]
Retrospective	3	0.53 [0.21–0.84]	0.93 [0.86–1.00]			–
Design
Case-control study	7	0.71 [0.54–0.89]	0.94 [0.89–0.98]	80	0.01	0.93 [0.91–0.95]
Cohort study	13	0.68 [0.55–0.81]	0.76 [0.66–0.86]	71	0.03	0.79 [0.76–0.83]
Cross-sectional study	17	0.78 [0.69–0.88]	0.82 [0.74–0.90]	0	0.49	0.86 [0.83–0.89]
Onset
EONS	7	0.54 [0.35–0.73]	0.85 [0.74–0.95]	64	0.06	0.56 [0.51–0.60]
LONS	2	0.53 [0.11–0.94]	0.88 [0.71–1.00]	0	0.53	–
EONS and LONS	28	0.78 [0.72–0.84]	0.82 [0.76–0.88]	74	0.02	0.87 [0.84–0.90]
Gestational age
Preterm or term	2	0.54 [0.17–0.90]	0.92 [0.81–1.00]	93	0.00	–
Preterm and term	33	0.75 [0.68–0.83]	0.83 [0.77–0.88]			0.86 [0.83–0.89]
Control group
Healthy	4	0.65 [0.40–0.90]	0.96 [0.92–1.00]	79	0.01	–
No sepsis	11	0.73 [0.60–0.86]	0.90 [0.84–0.95]	65	0.06	–
Suspected sepsis	22	0.75 [0.66–0.84]	0.73 [0.66–0.80]	90	0.00	0.79 [0.75–0.82]
Threshold predefined
Yes	27	0.74 [0.65–0.82]	0.79 [0.72–0.85]	68	0.04	0.84 [0.80–0.86]
No	10	0.73 [0.59–0.86]	0.90 [0.85–0.96]			0.86 [0.82–0.89]
Threshold
0.2	20	0.70 [0.60–0.81]	0.81 [0.73–0.88]	31	0.24	0.82 [0.79–0.85]
Increase*	7	0.87 [0.78–0.97]	0.81 [0.69–0.94]	61	0.08	0.92 [0.89–0.94]
Other than 0.2 and Increase*	10	0.70 [0.55–0.85]	0.87 [0.79–0.95]	0	0.54	0.85 [0.82–0.88]

EONS, early onset NS; LONS, late-onset NS; ITR, immature-to-total neutrophil ratio; and AUSROC, area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve.

*Normal values as defined by reference ranges of Manroe et al. (15).