Der p 1 and Der p 2 specific immunoglobulin E measurement for diagnosis of allergy: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

A clinical history of allergic symptoms and a skin-prick test with house-dust mite crude extracts are standard diagnostic procedures for Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus allergy. Specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) responses to Der p 1 and Der p 2 allergens have been used for the diagnosis of D. pteronyssinus allergy; however, evaluation of the diagnostic performance of Der p 1 and Der p 2 specific IgE (sIgE) produced inconsistent findings. We sought to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of Der p 1 sIgE and Der p 2 sIgE measurement in the diagnosis of D. pteronyssinus allergy by performing a systematic review and meta-analysis of previously published studies.

METHODS

Several medical literature electronic data bases were searched for related literature published through August 1, 2016. A bivariate model was used to pool estimates of sensitivity, specificity, diagnostic odds ratio, and area under the summary receiver operating curves as the main diagnostic measures.

RESULTS

Eight studies, which involved 1095 patients, were included in our analysis. The pooled estimates of sensitivity, specificity, and diagnostic odds ratio for Der p 1 were 0.84, 0.97, and 166.57, respectively. The combined results for Der p 2 were a sensitivity of 0.87, specificity of 1.00, and a diagnostic odds ratio of 17342.35. The areas under the summary receiver operating curves for Der p 1 sIgE and Der p 2 sIgE were 0.94 and 0.98, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Our results supported the use of Der p 1 and Der p 2 sIgE in the diagnosis of D. pteronyssinus allergy. Both displayed good diagnostic performance and would be useful in a clinical setting in the accurate diagnosis of dust mite allergy.