Dried blood spots PCR assays to screen congenital cytomegalovirus infection: a meta-analysis

Table 6 Meta-regression to determine potential sources of heterogeneity

Possible sources of heterogeneity of meta -analysis
study characteristic	Coefficient	*P value*	Relative DOR	95% CI
LOD	0.33	0.5304	1.39	0.45 - 4.34
Area	-0.14	0.7802	0.87	0.28 - 2.65
PCR (real-time PCR vs.nested-PCR vs. others)	-1.68	0.0082	0.19	0.06 - 0.58

Three factors were probably the source of heterogeneity, and analyzed by meta regression. The LOD and area of DBS were defined as above subgroup analysis. The different PCR methods were defined as real-time PCR, nested-PCR and others (including CMV LC-PCR, conventional PCR combined with nested-PCR, and PCR combined with a hybridization test. The meta regression showed that PCR methods was the factor that influenced the heterogeneity (P = 0.0082).

ISSN: 1743-422X