Objective:

To evaluate the validity of the immunodiagnosis of htlv i/ii in blood banks, based on studies published in the scientific literature.

Methodology:

A meta-analysis of diagnostic tests was carried out following the PRISMA guidelines and Cochrane recommendations. The methodological quality was evaluated with QUADAS, and reproducibility and completeness were guaranteed. A random effects analysis was also performed with respect to sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, diagnostic odds ratio, and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) with their 95 % confidence intervals (CI).

Results:

4,604 studies were screened, of which only three complied with the protocol. 548 subjects infected with HTLV I/II and 6,643 healthy subjects were evaluated. The immunodiagnosis of HTLV I/II had a sensitivity of 99 % (95 % CI = 98.0-99.0), a specificity of 100 % (95 % CI = 99.9-100), a positive likelihood ratio of 315.8 (95 % CI = 128.2-778.5) and a negative likelihood ratio of 0.02 (95 % CI = 0.01-0.04), a diagnostic odds ratio of 24,373 (95 % CI = 6,864-86,545), and an area under the ROC curve of 99.9 %.

Conclusion:

Few studies are available in the field of HTLV I/II immunodiagnosis. The high number of subjects analyzed showed high validity of the immunodiagnosis, which is decisive to guarantee the safety of the blood units, the detection of asymptomatic carriers, the decrease in transmission, and the start of treatment.

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