Basic Research
Copyright ©2006 Baishideng Publishing Group Co., Limited. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 21, 2006; 12(27): 4325-4330
Published online Jul 21, 2006. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v12.i27.4325
Assessment of liver fibrosis by a noninvasive method of transient elastography and biochemical markers
Masaki Kawamoto, Toru Mizuguchi, Tadashi Katsuramaki, Minoru Nagayama, Hideki Oshima, Hiroyuki Kawasaki, Takayuki Nobuoka, Yasutoshi Kimura, Koichi Hirata
Masaki Kawamoto, Toru Mizuguchi, Tadashi Katsuramaki, Minoru Nagayama, Hideki Oshima, Hiroyuki Kawasaki, Takayuki Nobuoka, Yasutoshi Kimura, Koichi Hirata, Department of Surgery I, Sapporo Medical University Hospital, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, S-1, W-16, Chuo-Ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8543, Japan
Supported by the Grants-in-Aid from the Society for the Promotion of Science, Sapporo Medical University for T. Mizuguchi, and Grants-in-Aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports Science and Technology, Japan. No. 18591519 for T. Mizuguchi, No. 17591420 for T. Katsuramaki, and No. 15390403 for K. Hirata
Correspondence to: Toru Mizuguchi, MD, PhD, Department of Surgery I, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, S-1, W-16, Chuo-Ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-8543, Japan. tmizu@sapmed.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-11-6112111-3281 Fax: +81-11-6131678
Received: February 24, 2006
Revised: February 28, 2006
Accepted: March 13, 2006
Published online: July 21, 2006
Abstract

AIM: To assess the correlation between the fibrotic area (FA) as calculated by a digital image analysis (DIA), and to compare the diagnostic accuracy of FibroScan to the other existing Liver fibrosis (LF) markers using the receiver operating curve analysis.

METHODS: We recruited 30 patients who underwent a liver resection for three different etiologies including normal liver, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. Liver stiffness was measured by using a FibroScan. The FA was then calculated by DIA to evaluate LF in order to avoid any sampling bias.

RESULTS: The FA negatively correlated with Prothrom-bin time (PT), platelet count, lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT), and pre-albumin (ALB). On the other hand, the findings of FibroScan correlated with similar markers. The FA positively correlated with FibroScan, serum hyaluronate level, and type IV collagen level, and aspartate transaminase to platelet ratio index (APRI). The area under the receiver operating curve for FibroScan was higher than that for the other markers, even though the statistical significance was minimal.

CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that FibroScan can initially be used to assess LF as an alternative to a liver biopsy (LB) and serum diagnosis, because it is a safe method with comparable diagnostic accuracy regarding the existing LF markers.

Keywords: Cirrhosis, Digital image analysis, Fibro-Scan, Fibrotic area, Hyaluronate, Lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase, Liver fibrosis, Pre-albumin