Accuracy of Reverse Transcription Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification Technique for Detecting Dengue Virus

In recent years, researchers have developed a reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) test as a sensitive and specific technique. But the results of these studies were conflicting. The aim of this meta-analysis was to assess the accuracy of RT-LAMP technique for detecting dengue virus. We systematically searched PUBMED, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library up to June 2015. Data from included studies were pooled to yield the summary sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) curve. All statistical analyses were performed using STATA VERSION 12.0 software. A total of 7 studies including 1263 clinical samples fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Our results showed that the pooled sensitivity and specificity were 0.99 and 0.96, respectively. The pooled DOR was 564.94 and the area under the curve (AUC) of SROC was 0.99, indicating a high level of overall accuracy. Besides, heterogeneity was statistically significant but was not caused by the threshold effect. Our study validates that RT-LAMP is an alternative molecular diagnostic method for the diagnosis of dengue virus infection.