Summary of the meta-analysis for each cytokine
| Cytokines | Sensitivity (95% CI) | Specificity (95% CI) | PLR (95% CI) | NLR (95% CI) | DOR (95% CI) | Heterogeneity of sensitivity (I2 p) | Heterogeneity of specificity (I2 p) | AUC (95% CI) |
| IFN-γ | 0.72 (0.52 to 0.86) | 0.82 (0.76 to 0.86) | 4.0 (3.0 to 5.3) | 0.34 (0.19 to 0.62) | 12 (5 to 26) | 88.97%, <0.01 | 0%, 0.50 | 0.84 (0.80 to 0.87) |
| TNF-α | 0.70 (0.56 to 0.82) | 0.79 (0.64 to 0.89) | 3.4 (2.2 to 5.3) | 0.37 (0.26 to 0.53) | 9 (6 to 14) | 81.34%, <0.01 | 80.81%, <0.01 | 0.81 (0.78 to 0.85) |
| IP-10 | 0.75 (0.60 to 0.86) | 0.74 (0.56 to 0.87) | 2.9 (1.8 to 4.7) | 0.34 (0.24 to 0.49) | 9 (5 to 14) | 84.34%, <0.01 | 89.61%, <0.01 | 0.81 (0.77 to 0.84) |
| IL-2 | 0.84 (0.72 to 0.92) | 0.66 (0.44 to 0.82) | 2.5 (1.4 to 4.3) | 0.24 (0.13 to 0.43) | 10 (4 to 26) | 79.36%, <0.01 | 87.31%, <0.01 | 0.84 (0.81 to 0.87) |
| IL-10 | 0.74 (0.62 to 0.84) | 0.72 (0.52 to 0.86) | 2.6 (1.5 to 4.5) | 0.36 (0.25 to 0.51) | 7 (4 to 15) | 51.98%, 0.10 | 76.62%, 0.01 | 0.79 (0.75 to 0.83) |
| IL-12 | 0.50 (0.41 to 0.59) | 0.82 (0.74 to 0.87) | 2.7 (1.8 to 4.0) | 0.62 (0.51 to 0.75) | 4 (2 to 8) | 0%, 0.42 | 0%, 0.44 | 0.72 (0.68 to 0.76) |
| VEGF | 0.59 (0.35 to 0.80) | 0.87 (0.73 to 0.94) | 4.5 (2.5 to 8.0) | 0.47 (0.27 to 0.80) | 10 (4 to 22) | 85.80%, <0.01 | 42.08%, 0.16 | 0.85 (0.81 to 0.88) |
PLR, positive likelihood ratio; NLR, negative likelihood ratio; DOR, diagnostic OR; AUC, area under the curve.;