Combination of transient elastography with serum-based non-invasive tests improves prediction of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C: a prospective cohort study

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-84
Author(s):  
Romanas Zykus ◽  
Laimas Jonaitis ◽  
Vitalija Petrenkienė ◽  
Inga Gudinavičienė ◽  
Limas Kupčinskas

The work was carried out at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Hospital Kaunas Clinics. Background. To date, there is not enough data to conclude whether the combination of different non-invasive liver fibrosis tests could improve the accuracy in prediction of liver fibrosis. The aim of this study was to assess correlation between transient elastography (TE), aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index (APRI), fibrosis 4 score (FIB4) and histological stage of fibrosis (F). Materials and methods. In this prospective study the correlation of TE, APRI and FIB4 with the stage of fibrosis was assessed in 140 patients with chronic HCV hepatitis. TE, APRI and FIB4 were measured the same day before biopsy. Fibrosis was evaluated using the METAVIR score. Cut-off values were established by applying the ROC curve analysis. All non-invasive tests were combined into pairs in order to evaluate the accuracy of fibrosis prediction. Results. The stage of fibrosis correlated with TE (R-0.74), FIB4 (R-0.67) and APRI (R-0.58). To detect F4 TE cut-off value 12.1 kPa had 93.8% sensitivity and 85% specificity; APRI cut-off value 1.42 (84.4/81.1) and FIB4 cutoff value 2.89 (84.4/84.0) were established. To determine F ≥ 3 – 10.3 kPa (91.1/83.9), 1.28 (77.8/78.5), 2.28 (84.4/81.7); F ≥ 2 8.5 kPa (80.9/74.3), 1.12 (72.1/78.6), 1.63 (82.4/75.7); F  ≥  1 5.35  kPa (85.4/100), 0.45 (89.2/87.5), 0.89 (87.7/75). Significant increase of accuracy was observed in TE/APRI (p – 0.008) and FIB4/APRI (p – 0.02) groups to predict F ≥ 1, and TE/FIB4 to predict F ≥ 2 (p – 0.04) and F ≥ 1 (p – 0.04). Conclusions. Combined use of TE/APRI, FIB4/APRI increased the accuracy to predict F ≥ 1, and TE/FIB4 combination increased the accuracy to predict F ≥ 2 and F ≥ 1.

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 173-182
Author(s):  
Theodoros Androutsakos ◽  
Maria Schina ◽  
Abraham Pouliakis ◽  
Athanasios Kontos ◽  
Nikolaos Sipsas ◽  
...  

Background: Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is common in HIV-infected individuals. Liver biopsy remains the gold-standard procedure for the diagnosis of liver fibrosis, but both Transient Elastography (TE) and Non-invasive Biomarkers (NIBMs) have emerged as alternatives. Objectives: Our study’s aim was to validate commonly used NIBMs for the assessment of liver fibrosis in a cohort of Greek HIV-mono-infected patients. Methods: Inclusion criteria were confirmed HIV-infection and age>18 years and exclusion criteria HBV or HCV seropositivity, liver disease other than NAFLD, alcohol abuse, ascites, transaminases levels>4xULN(upper limit of normal) and Body-Mass index(BMI)>40. Liver stiffness (LS) measurement with TE and thorough laboratory work up and medical history were acquired at study entry. FIB-4, APRI, NFS, BARD, Forns and Lok scores were calculated for each patient. Results: A total of 157 patients were eligible for this study. Significant liver fibrosis, compatible with Metavir score of F3-F4, was found in only 11(7%) patients. These findings were in accordance with those of the NIBMs; the BARD score constituting the only exception, allocating 102(65%) patients as having significant liver fibrosis. In order to obtain a balance between sensitivity and specificity new cut-offs for each NIBM were calculated; FIB-4 score yielded the best results, since by changing the cut-off to 1.49 a sensitivity and specificity balanced for both close to 85% was achieved. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that NIBMs can be used for the evaluation of liver fibrosis in HIV mono-infected patients. New cut-offs for NIBMs should probably be calculated, to help distinguishing patients with significant from those with mild/no fibrosis.


2022 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 64-67
Author(s):  
Ishwarya Ramadoss ◽  
Anandaraj Jayaraman ◽  
Shobana Dhanapal

Abstract Aims :To compare the NAFLD fibrosis score and FIBROSIS 4 score to fibroscan, and affirm whether the scores shall be used as a screening tool for liver fibrosis, in place of fibroscan. Methodology: It was a cross-sectional study. Patients with fatty liver on ultrasonological examination with 200 sample size. After obtaining the informed consent the following details were collected socio-demographic details, history, co-morbidities, anthropometric measurements, Laboratory investigations. Results: the ROC curve analysis of fibroscan reveals the area under curve of 0.499 and based on the cut off value of 4.50Kpas the sensitivity and specificity was found to be 85.7% and 83.5% respectively. The ROC curve analysis of fibrosis-4 reveals the area under curve of 0.495 and based on the cut off value of 0.80 the sensitivity and specificity was found to be 91.9% and 92.1% respectively. Analysis of NAFLD fibrosis score reveals the area under curve of 0.476 and based on the cut off value of -1.53 the sensitivity and specificity was found to be 93.1% and 93.9% respectively. Conclusion: Henceforth the study suggests that NAFLD fibrosis score shall be used as a non -invasive bedside assessment of liver fibrosis in high risk population and hence guiding their follow up for prevention of morbidity in resource limited settings.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Cabibi ◽  
Fabrizio Bronte ◽  
Rossana Porcasi ◽  
Sabrina Ingrao ◽  
Antonino Giulio Giannone ◽  
...  

Background and Aim. The best staining to evaluate liver fibrosis in liver hepatitis is still a debated topic. This study aimed to compare Masson’s trichrome (MT), Sirius Red (SR), and orcein stainings in evaluating liver fibrosis in chronic HCV hepatitis (CHC) with semiquantitative and quantitative methods (Collagen Proportionate Area (CPA) by Digital Image Analysis (DIA)) and correlate them with transient elastography (TE).Methods. Liver stiffness evaluation of 111 consecutive patients with CHC was performed by TE. Semiquantitative staging by Metavir score system and CPA by DIA were assessed on liver biopsy stained with MT, SR, and orcein.Results. MT, SR, and orcein staining showed concordant results in 89.6% of cases in staging CHC, without significant difference in both semiquantitative and quantitative evaluations of fibrosis. TE values were concordant with orcein levels in 86.5% of the cases and with MT/RS in 77.5% (P<0.001). No significant correlation between the grade of necroinflammatory activity and TE values was found.Conclusion. In CHC, SR/MT and orcein stainings are almost concordant and when discordant, orcein staining is better related to TE values than MT/RS. This suggests that elastic fibers play a more important role than reticular or collagenous ones in determining stiffness values in CHC.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (21) ◽  
pp. 4875
Author(s):  
Cita Zupanc ◽  
Alenka Franko ◽  
Danijela Štrbac ◽  
Metoda Dodič Fikfak ◽  
Viljem Kovač ◽  
...  

The early diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma (MM) could improve the prognosis of MM patients. To confirm an MM diagnosis, an immunohistochemical analysis of several tumor tissue markers, including calretinin, is currently required. Our aim is to evaluate serum calretinin as a potential biomarker in asbestos-related diseases, especially in MM. Our study includes 549 subjects: 164 MM patients, 117 subjects with asbestosis, 195 subjects with pleural plaques and 73 occupationally asbestos-exposed subjects without asbestos-related diseases. The serum calretinin concentration was determined with a commercially available enzyme immunoassay. Data on the soluble mesothelin-related peptides (SMRP) concentration are available from previous studies. MM patients had a significantly higher calretinin concentration than subjects without disease, subjects with pleural plaques or subjects with asbestosis (all p < 0.001). The histological type was significantly associated with serum calretinin: patients with sarcomatoid MM had lower calretinin than patients with the epithelioid type (p = 0.001). In a ROC curve analysis, the area under the curve for calretinin concentration predicting MM was 0.826 (95% CI = 0.782–0.869; p < 0.001). At the cutoff value of 0.32 ng/mL, sensitivity was 0.683, while specificity was 0.886. The combination of calretinin and SMRP had the highest predictive value. Calretinin is a useful biomarker that can distinguish MM from other asbestos-related diseases and could, therefore, contribute to an earlier non-invasive diagnosis of MM.


2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-133
Author(s):  
Soňa Franková ◽  
Jan Šperl

Portal hypertension represents a wide spectrum of complications of chronic liver diseases and may present by ascites, oesophageal varices, splenomegaly, hypersplenism, hepatorenal and hepatopulmonary syndrome or portopulmonary hypertension. Portal hypertension and its severity predicts the patient‘s prognosis: as an invasive technique, the portosystemic gradient (HPVG – hepatic venous pressure gradient) measurement by hepatic veins catheterisation has remained the gold standard of its assessment. A reliable, non-invasive method to assess the severity of portal hypertension is of paramount importance; the patients with clinically significant portal hypertension have a high risk of variceal bleeding and higher mortality. Recently, non-invasive methods enabling the assessment of liver stiffness have been introduced into clinical practice in hepatology. Not only may these methods substitute for liver biopsy, but they may also be used to assess the degree of liver fibrosis and predict the severity of portal hypertension. Nowadays, we can use the quantitative elastography (transient elastography, point shear-wave elastrography, 2D-shear-wave elastography) or magnetic resonance imaging. We may also assess the severity of portal hypertension based on the non-invasive markers of liver fibrosis (i.e. ELF test) or estimate clinically signifi cant portal hypertension using composite scores (LSPS – liver spleen stiff ness score), based on liver stiffness value, spleen diameter and platelet count. Spleen stiffness measurement is a new method that needs further prospective studies. The review describes current possibilities of the non-invasive assessment of portal hypertension and its severity.


QJM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 114 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammed F Montasser ◽  
Eman M Barakat ◽  
Mohamed S Ghazy ◽  
Sara M Abdelhakam ◽  
Hend E Ebada ◽  
...  

Abstract Aim of the work To test the reliability of fibroscan in detection of fibrosis in patients with Budd Chiari syndrome before and after endovascular intervention (after elimination of hepatic congestion). Background transient elastography (TE) is a noninvasive methodology that has been used to monitor liver stiffness in patients with chronic viral hepatitis. One of the limitations for accurate assessment of liver fibrosis by TE is the liver congestion. Liver congestion can result from Budd Chiari syndrome (BCS).The treatment of BCS is through restoring the flow of the blood between the portal vein to the inferior vena cava, which will lead to decongestion of the liver.TE, will be tested after liver decongestion for proper detection of liver fibrosis. Patients and methods This was a prospective cohort study conducted on 25 Egyptian patients with confirmed diagnosis of primary Budd-Chiari Syndrome (BCS) in the period from June 2017 to September 2019. TE was performed three days before endovascular intervention and three months after it. Liver biopsy was taken during the intervention for assessment of METAVIR score. Comparison was done between TE assessments before and after intervention in detection of the degree of liver fibrosis in comparison to METAVIR score measured in liver biopsy. Results FVLM was the most common hypercoagulable cause in the involved patients. There was significant drop in Liver Stiffness Measurements (LSM) measured three months post-intervention indicating improvement of liver fibrosis after relieving liver congestion but still not correlated to the METAVIR scores measured in the liver biopsy. Conclusion Liver congestion has high impact on Liver stiffness measurement giving overestimation which improves significantly after decongestion of the liver by the endovascular intervention.


QJM ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 114 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Abdelaaty Abdelkader ◽  
Amira Mahmoud AlBalakosy ◽  
Ahmed Fouad Helmy Sherief ◽  
Mohamed Soliman Gado

Abstract Background Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection affects approximately 170 million people worldwide, causing liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and leading to liver transplantation and ultimately death. Accurate evaluation of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic liver diseases is crucial, as liver fibrosis is important in order to make therapeutic decisions, determine prognosis of liver disease and to follow-up disease progression. Multiple non-invasive methods have been used successfully in the prediction of fibrosis; however, early changes in noninvasive biomarkers of hepatic fibrosis under effective antiviral therapy are widely unknown. The aim of this study is to evaluate changes of transient elastography values as well as FIB-4 and AST to platelet ratio index (APRI) in patients treated with DAAs. Objectives The aim beyond this study is to evaluate the changes in liver stiffness in hepatitis C Egyptian patients before and at least one year after treatment with DAAs using transient elastography and non-invasive liver fibrosis indices as FIB-4 and APRI scores. Patients and methods The present study was conducted on 100 patients with chronic hepatitis C patients attended to Ain Shams University Hospitals, Viral hepatitis treatment unit between October 2017 and December 2018, who were followed-up during treatment and after treatment for at least one year (retrospective and prospective study). Total number of cases during the study period was 117 patients. 17 patients were excluded from the study due to missed follow-up. Eventually, 100 patients were enrolled in the study fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Results The mean age of our patients is 47.9 years with Male predominance (52 males and 48 females). There was a significant improvement of, platelets counts, ALT and AST levels, which in turn cause significant improvement in FIB-4 and APRI scores. There was a significant improvement of liver stiffness after end of treatment, regardless of the DAA regimen used, as evidenced by Fibroscan. Conclusion Fibrosis regression –assessed by non-invasive markers of fibrosis is achievable upon removal of the causative agent.


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