Objective:

To evaluate the diagnostic validity of the immunological tests in Paracoccidioides infection, from a meta-analysis of the literature published between 1970-2017.

Methods:

Meta-analysis according to the identification, screening, eligibility and inclusion phases of PRISMA. The methodological quality was evaluated with the QUADAS guide and the reproducibility in the selection of studies and extraction of the information was guaranteed. Sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratios, diagnostic OR and area under the ROC curve were estimated using Meta-DiSc.

Results:

We identified 21 studies that evaluated 32 diagnostic tests with a population of 1404 healthy individuals, 2415 with other infections and 2337 with Paracoccidioides. The majority of patients are from Brazil and Colombia. The tests analyzed include immunodiffusion, western blot, ELISA, latex agglutination. The tests presented a sensitivity and specificity higher than 90%, positive and negative likelihood ratio of 24,7 and 0,08 respectively. The diagnostic OR was 495,9 and the area under the curve was 0,99. In the meta-regression by type of antigen it was found that mixtures of antigens and gp43 showed satisfactory results in all parameters; those who used the p27 antigen did not present acceptable results in any of the parameters.

Conclusion:

The diagnostic validity of the serological tests using mixtures of antigens or purifed gp43 is clinically similar, for the other antigens the validity was scarce.

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