Abstract
Background and aim: In patients infected with chronic hepatitis C virus, liver biopsy is the gold standard method of staging fibrosis. Different combinations of serum markers attempted to correlate with hepatic fibrosis in place of liver biopsy and have shown encouraging results. The aim of our study is to evaluate the diagnostic value of endoglin and FIB-4 as non-invasive markers of hepatic fibrosis in HCV patients. Methods: We estimated serum endoglin & FIB-4 index in 40 infected chronic hepatitis C patients. Histological staging of hepatic fibrosis was done according to the METAVIR scoring system. Results: Both endoglin and FIB-4 index showed positive correlation with age and aspartate transaminase and inverse correlation with albumin. The diagnostic performance determined by AUROCs for early fibrosis (≤F2), was 0.868 for endoglin and 0.887 for FIB-4, at cut off va- lues of 5.5 & 0.98 with sensitivity of 64.3% & 82.1%, and specificity of 100% & 85% respectively. For ad-vanced fibrosis (>F2), the AUROC was 0.98 for endoglin and 0.967 for FIB-4, obtained at cut off values of 6.29 & 1.6, with sensitivity of 100% & 91.7%, and specificity of 89.3% & 92.9%, respectively. Conclusion: Both serum endoglin and FIB-4 index are fairly accurate in differentiating stages of hepatic fibrosis; their combination in a single equation enhanced the accuracy of fibrosis detection in chronic HCV patients.
Highlights
Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is recognized as a major healthcare problem with a worldwide prevalence of over 200 million [1] with a high prevalence in Egypt
The aim of our study is to evaluate the diagnostic value of endoglin and Fibrosis index biochemical (FIB-4) as noninvasive markers of hepatic fibrosis in HCV patients
For advanced fibrosis (>F2), the AUROC was 0.98 for endoglin and 0.967 for FIB-4, obtained at cut off values of 6.29 & 1.6, with sensitivity of 100% & 91.7%, and specificity of 89.3% & 92.9%, respectively. Both serum endoglin and FIB-4 index are fairly accurate in differentiating stages of hepatic fibrosis; their combination in a single equation enhanced the accuracy of fibrosis detection in chronic HCV patients
Summary
Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is recognized as a major healthcare problem with a worldwide prevalence of over 200 million [1] with a high prevalence in Egypt. Accurate and cost-effective non-invasive methods as serum markers may allow dynamic calibration of fibrosis to assess disease severity and monitor CHC patients &. In patients infected with chronic hepatitis C virus, liver biopsy is the gold standard method of staging fibrosis. Different combinations of serum markers attempted to correlate with hepatic fibrosis in place of liver biopsy and have shown encouraging results. The aim of our study is to evaluate the diagnostic value of endoglin and FIB-4 as noninvasive markers of hepatic fibrosis in HCV patients. Methods: We estimated serum endoglin & FIB-4 index in 40 infected chronic hepatitis C patients. Conclusion: Both serum endoglin and FIB-4 index are fairly accurate in differentiating stages of hepatic fibrosis; their combination in a single equation enhanced the accuracy of fibrosis detection in chronic HCV patients
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