Assessment of fibroblast growth factor 19 as a non-invasive serum marker for hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 1 Characteristics of all participants

		Control (n = 30)	Cirrhosis (n = 30)	HCC (n = 30)	P value	Post-hoc analysis
Age (yr)		51.07 ± 12.38	53.57 ± 10.48	57.37 ± 10.25	0.091
Sex	Female	12 (40%)	10 (33.3%)	11 (36.7%)	0.866
	Male	18 (60%)	20 (66.7%)	19 (63.3%)
Aetiology of hepatic disease			HCV (n = 18, 60%)	HCV (n = 25, 83.33%)	0.691
			HBV (n = 7, 23.3%)	HBV (n = 3, 10%)
			Others (n = 5, 16.6%)	Others (n = 2, 6.66%)
Child-Pugh Class	Class A		18 (60%)	5 (16.7%)	0.002
	Class B		6 (20%)	11 (36.7%)
	Class C		6 (20%)	14 (46.7%)
Fibroblast growth factor 19 (pg/mL)		69.60 ± 20.90	125.63 ± 31.54	236.44 ± 40.94	≤ 0.001	P1 ≤ 0.001
						P2 ≤ 0.001
						P3 ≤ 0.001
Alpha fetoprotein (ng/mL)		3.35 (2.5 – 4.5)	6.4 (4 – 6.9)	513.5 (5.6 – 1500)	≤ 0.001	P1 ≤ 0.001
						P2 ≤ 0.001
						P3 ≤ 0.001
Haemoglobin (g/dL)		13.16 ± 1.24	10.68 ± 1.11	10.49 ± 1.59	≤ 0.001	P1 ≤ 0.001
						P2 ≤ 0.001
						P3 = 0.588
White blood cells (109/L)		7.09 ± 2.01	6.37 ± 2.27	5.86 ± 2.43	0.109
Platelets (109/L)		288.10 ± 92.79	144.17 ± 48.27	136.13 ± 43.78	≤ 0.001	P1 ≤ 0.001
						P2 ≤ 0.001
						P3 = 0.636
Alanine aminotransferase (U/L)		20.67 ± 7.02	65.47 ± 33.00	52.97 ± 23.25	≤ 0.001	P1 ≤ 0.001
						P2 ≤ 0.001
						P3 = 0.044
Aspartate aminotransferase (U/L)		23.23 ± 12.69	49.87 ± 24.78	45.93 ± 20.02	≤ 0.001	P1 ≤ 0.001
						P2 ≤ 0.001
						P3 = 0.444
Creatinine (mg/dL)		0.90 ± 0.22	0.99 ± 0.36	1.11 ± 0.51	0.112
Urea (mg/dL)		21.70 ± 7.37	30.10 ± 18.82	32.97 ± 25.17	0.057
Albumin (g/dL)		3.96 ± 0.34	3.33 ± 0.53	2.65 ± 0.43	≤ 0.001	P1 ≤ 0.001
						P2 ≤ 0.001
						P3 ≤ 0.001
INR		1.09 ± 0.11	1.54 ± 0.24	1.85 ± 0.36	≤ 0.001	P1 ≤ 0.001
						P2 ≤ 0.001
						P3 ≤ 0.001
Bilirubin (mg/dL)		0.75 ± 0.26	1.80 ± 0.74	1.97 ± 0.42	≤ 0.001	P1 ≤ 0.001
						P2 ≤ 0.001
						P3 = 0.211
Fasting blood glucose (µmoI/L)		5.19 ± 0.19	4.46 ± 0.28	4.46 ± 0.28	≤ 0.001	P1 ≤ 0.001
						P2 ≤ 0.001
						P3 = 1.000

HBV: Hepatitis B virus; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; HCV: Hepatitis C virus; INR: International normalised ratio.