Evaluation of MIP-1α Detection in Eearly Diagnosis of Coal Workers' Pneumoconiosis by Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve Analysis

[Objective] To explore the value of macrophage inflammatory protein-1α(MIP-1α) in early diagnosis of coal workers' pneumoconiosis by establishing a receiver operating characteristic(ROC) curve model. [Methods] Serum levels of MIP-1α were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA) in 180 suspected silicosis patients with small lung opacity(observation group), 180 silica dust exposed workers without pneumoconiosis(dust exposed group), and 109 stageⅠ pneumoconiosis patients(case group). Evaluation of serum MIP-1α detection in screening coal workers' pneumoconiosis was using ROC curve analysis. [Results] By analysis of covariance, controlling for age, the serum levels of MIP-1α in the case group were significantly higher than those in the exposed group and the observation group(P 0.05); and the levels of MIP-1α in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the exposed group(P 0.05). When stratified by seniority, the levels of MIP-1α in the case group were significantly higher than those in the observation group or in the exposed group for dust exposure duration of 10- years, 20- years, or 30 to 38 years(P 0.05); the levels of MIP-1α in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the exposed group for the above three durations(P 0.05). The MIP-1α level increased with seniority for the three groups. The ROC analysis indicated the area under the ROC curve was 0.874, the optimal criterion value was 940.85 ng/L, the sensitivity was 75.2%, the specificity was 90.0%, the missed diagnosis rate was 24.8%, the misdiagnosis rate was 10%, the Youden index was 65.2%, the positive likelihood ratio was 7.52, the negative likelihood ratio was 0.28, the agreement was 0.87, the Kappa value was 0.63, the positive predictive value was 69.49%, the negative predictive was 92.31%, and the yield was 36 people. [Conclusion] MIP-1α as a screening indicator has the advantages in high validity and reliability, and therefore can be used for coal workers' pneumoconiosis early diagnosis.