Comparative study between Embosphere® and Marine gel® as embolic agents for chemoembolization of hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the study population

	Total (n = 70)	Embosphere (n = 33)	Marine gel (n = 37)	P value
Age	67.4 ± 10.5	68.4 ± 8.5	66.4 ± 12.1	0.44
Sex				0.53
Male	55	27	28
Female	15	6	9
Etiology				0.99
HBV	48	24	24
HCV	2	1	1
HBV + HCV	5	1	4
Non-viral	15	7	8
Platelet (103/mm3)	126.1 ± 58.9	119.4 ± 65.7	132.1 ± 52.3	0.37
Serum albumin(g/dL)	4.05 ± 0.47	3.97 ± 0.52	4.12 ± 0.41	0.20
Total bilirubin (mg/dL)	0.77 ± 0.60	0.74 ± 0.54	0.80 ± 0.64	0.70
PT (INR)	1.08 ± 0.14	1.10 ± 0.13	1.07 ± 0.15	0.32
Creatinine (mg/dL)	1.09 ± 0.92	1.14 ± 1.03	1.04 ± 0.82	0.67
ALT	27.7 ± 14.7	30.5 ± 16.8	25.1 ± 12.2	0.13
AST	34.1 ± 16.7	38.0 ± 19.6	30.7 ± 12.9	0.07
Child-Pugh class				0.49
A	67	31	36
B	3	2	1
Previous Tx				0.55
RFA	18	11	7
Resection	5	1	4
AFP (≤ 100 ng/mL/> 100 ng/mL)	62/8	30/3	32/5	0.56
PIVKA (≤ 100 mAU/mL/> 100 mAU/mL)	59/11	30/3	29/8	0.15
Tumor size (cm)				0.50
mean ± SD		1.7 ± 0.6	1.8 ± 0.7
Median		1.5	1.5
Range		1.0-3.2	1.0-3.6

HCV: Hepatitis C virus; HBV: Hepatitis B virus; PT: Prothrombin time; INR: International normalized ratio; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; AST: Aspartate aminotransferase; RFA: Radiofrequency ablation; AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; PIVKA: Prothrombin induced by vitamin K deficiency or antagonist.