Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Utility of Circular RNAs as Biomarkers of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Table 3

Results of subgroup analysis and univariate metaregression in diagnostic meta-analysis.

Covariate	No. of studies	Heterogeneity	Sensitivity	Specificity	DOR	AUC	RDOR	P
		I^2 test (%)/Ph	(95%CI)	(95%CI)	(95%CI)	(95%CI)	(95%CI)
Sample size			.
N ≥170	5	60.40/ 0.04	0.69 (0.55 - 0.80)	0.78 (0.71 - 0.83)	8.00 (5.00 - 12.00)	0.81 (0.77 - 0.84)	0.83 (0.23-3.03)	0.74
N <170	5	81.10/<0.01	0.80 (0.67 - 0.88)	0.74 (0.63 - 0.83)	11.00 (5.00 - 27.00)	0.83 (0.80 - 0.86)
Source of control
Healthy people or adjacent non-tumor tissues	5	56.70/ 0.06	0.83 (0.73 - 0.90)	0.75 (0.69 - 0.80)	14.00 (9.00 - 23.00)	0.81 (0.78 - 0.84)	2.65 (0.94-7.46)	0.06
Liver cirrhosis or chronic hepatitis	5	55.60/0.06	0.64 (0.54 - 0.73)	0.75 (0.64 - 0.84)	6.00 (4.00 – 8.00)	0.75 (0.71 - 0.79)
Specimen type
Plasmas	3	87.30/<0.01	0.79 (0.74 - 0.84)	0.65 (0.57 - 0.73)	8.93 (2.37 – 33.64)	0.72 (0.45 - 1.00)	0.57 (0.13-2.56)	0.41
Tissue	7	60.50/ 0.02	0.68 (0.64 - 0.72)	0.79 (0.75 - 0.82)	8.62 (5.58 – 13.30)	0.82 (0.77 - 0.87)
Reference gene	9	74.30/<0.01	0.74 (0.63 - 0.82)	0.76 (0.70 - 0.82)	9.00 (5.00 - 15.00)	0.82 (0.78 - 0.85)
(GAPDH)
Male (≥80%)	9	68.40/<0.01	0.76 (0.66 - 0.84)	0.76 (0.69 - 0.82)	10.00 (6.00 – 16.00)	0.82 (0.79 - 0.85)
Overall	10	71.40/<0.01	0.74 (0.65 - 0.82)	0.76 (0.70 - 0.81)	9.00 (6.00 – 14.00)	0.81 (0.78 - 0.84)

CI: confidence interval; DOR: diagnostic odds ratio; RDOR: Relative diagnostic odds ratio; AUC: the area under the SROC curve.