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Meta-Analysis
. 2020 Aug 5;20(1):575.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-020-05303-0.

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiology, clinical signs, routine laboratory diagnosis, risk factors, and outcomes

Zhiquan He  1 , Bohao Wang  1 , Yi Li  2   3 , Yanhua Du  2   3 , Hongxia Ma  2   3 , Xingle Li  2   3 , Wanshen Guo  2 , Bianli Xu  2 , Xueyong Huang  4   5
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiology, clinical signs, routine laboratory diagnosis, risk factors, and outcomes

Zhiquan He et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging infectious disease with the high case-fatality rate, and lack of vaccines. We aimed to systematically analysed the epidemiological characteristics, clinical signs, routine laboratory diagnosis, risk factors, and outcomes.

Methods: Documents on SFTS were collected by searching the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wan Fang Data, PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases from 2011 to 2018. Meta-analysis was performed by using Review Manager and Stata software.

Results: Twenty-five articles involving 4143 cases were included. Diarrhea (odds ratio (OR) =1.60, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.06 to 2.42, P = 0.02), and vomiting (OR = 1.56, 95% CI: 1.01 to 2.39, P = 0.04) on admission were associated with the fatal outcomes of SFTS. Compared to patients with mild symptoms, patients with severe symptoms had significantly elevated levels of lactic acid dehydrogenase (standard mean difference (SMD) =1.27, 95% CI: 0.59 to 1.94), alanine aminotransferase (SMD = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.24 to 0.85), aspirate aminotransferase (SMD = 1.01, 95% CI: 0.69 to 1.32), and creatine kinase (SMD = 1.04, 95% CI: 0.74 to 1.33) but had reduced platelet counts (SMD = -0.87, 95% CI: - 1.16 to - 0.58) and albumin levels (SMD = -1.00, 95% CI: - 1.32 to - 0.68). The risk factors for poor prognosis included age (mean difference (MD) =6.88, 95% CI: 5.41 to 8.35) and farming (OR = 2.01, 95% CI: 1.06 to 3.80). For the risk factors of contracting SFTS, the incidence of SFTS related to tick bites was 24% [95% CI: 0.18 to 0.31]. The pooled case-fatality rate of SFTS patients was 18% [95% CI: 0.16 to 0.21].

Conclusions: China is the country with the highest incidence of SFTS. May to July was the peak of the epidemic, and farmers were a high-risk group. The risk factor for SFTS included age (poor prognosis) and tick bites (contracting SFTS). Patients with severe diarrhea and vomiting symptoms on admission should be noted. Clinicians could use routine laboratory parameters and clinical symptoms as references for clinically suspected cases, classification of SFTS, and timely treatment, especially in basic hospitals.

Keywords: Clinical signs; Epidemiology; Meta-analysis; Outcomes; Risk factors; Routine laboratory diagnosis; SFTS.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A flow diagram showing the selection of studies
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Forest plots for the meta-analysis of a panel of the clinical signs and fatal outcomes of SFTS disease. a Diarrhea (on admission), b Vomiting (on admission)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Forest plots of meta-analysis on a panel of routine laboratory parameters. a LDH, b Platelet count, c CK, d ALT, e AST, f Albumin, g WBC count
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Forest plots of meta-analysis on a panel of risk factors. a Age, b Interval between onset and admission, c Farming, d Tick bite
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
a Forest plot of case fatality rate for SFTS patients, b Subgroup analysis forest plot according to location
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Funnel plots for publication bias. a Egger’s publication bias plot, b Begg’s funnel plot
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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