Perspective Biological Markers for Autism Spectrum Disorders: Advantages of the Use of Receiver Operating Characteristic Curves in Evaluating Marker Sensitivity and Specificity

Table 4

Inflammation markers. AUC: Area Under the Curve; ASD: Autistic Spectrum Disorder; HC: healthy controls; SD: standard deviation; and na: data not available.

Lab test

Increase

Decrease

values

Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC)

Diagnosis

Age (Y): range (mean ± SD)

Number; M/F

Control group

Country

Biologic sample

Technique

Reference

Cut-off values

Sensitivity

Specificity

AUC

Interleukin-6; (pg/mL)

103.98

87.88%

74.19%

0.85

Autism

(12.21 ± 2.67)

27/6

HC

China

Plasma

ELISA

[36]

Combination of serotonin and interleukin-6

250.4

84.85%

96.77%

0.96

HSP-70; (ng/mL)

0.001

12.218

95.0%

84.2%

0.987

ASD

3–16

20 male

HC

Saudi Arabia

Plasma

ELISA

[44]

TGF-β; (pg/mL)

0.001

78.649

100.0%

89.5%

1.000

Caspase-7 (ng/mL)

0.001

6.698

90.0%

89.5%

0.968

INF-γ; (ng/mL)

0.001

56.558

100.0%

78.9%

1.000

Leukotriene (pg/mL)

0.001

205.689

100.0%

84.2%

1.000

Autism

4–12

20 male

HC

Saudi Arabia

Plasma

ELISA

[45]

PGE2; (pg/mL)

0.001

247.968

100.0%

84.2%

1.000

Caspase-3 (ng/mL)

<0.001

161.17

100.0%

86.7%

0.968

ASD

4–12

25 male

HC

Saudi Arabia

Plasma

na

[46]

IL-6; (pg/mL)

<0.001

301.95

84.0%

100.0%

0.952

TNFa; (pg/mL)

<0.001

297.67

76.0%

100.0%

0.915

Neopterin (nmol/L)

<0.0001

≥8.5

≥84.2%

80.1%

0.876

ASD

(3.69 ± 1.30)

64/16

HC

China

Plasma

ELISA

[47]

Lipoxin A4; (pg/mL)

<0.0001

81.5

90.7%

76.0%

0.911

Autistic disorders

(3.69 ± 1.22)

59/16

HC

China

Plasma

ELISA

[48]

Interferon-γ-induced protein-16 (ng/mL)

0.001

1.750

100.0%

70.0%

0.933

ASD

3–12 (7.0 ± 2.34)

52 male

HC

Saudi Arabia

Plasma

ELISA

[37]