Objective To evaluate diagnostic value of antifilaggrin autoantibodies (AFA) for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods A systematic, comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed (1966 to 2010.8), The Cochrane Library (issue 8, 2010), EMbase (1974 to 2010.8), CBM (1978 to 2010.8), CNKI (1994 to 2010.8), VIP (1989 to 2010.8) and Chinese Medical Association of Digital Periodicals (1997 to 2010.8). The diagnosis studies on AFA versus the standards of American College of Rheumatology for RA were included. QUADAS items were used to evaluate the quality of the included studies. Meta-disc software (version 1.4) was used to analyze data. Sensitivity (SEN), specificity (SPE), positive likelihood ratio (+LR), negative likelihood ratio (–LR) and summary receiver operating characteristic curve (SROC) were calculated to assess the diagnostic value of individual diagnostic tests. Results A total of 18 articles were included, involving 6 971 cases of subjects from 7 countries. Results of meta-analysis showed that, compared with the standards of American College of Rheumatology, pooled SEN, SPE, +LR, –LR, and SROC curve of AFA were 0.52 (0.50, 0.54), 0.93 (0.92, 0.94), 7.11 (5.35, 9.45), 0.53 (0.48, 0.60), 13.82 (9.93, 19.24), and 0.834 7, respectively. Conclusion IBT, ELISA detection of AFA are of high efficiency in the diagnosis of RA. However, the antigen from human breast skin is not conducive to clinical application.
