Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Dec 14, 2015; 21(46): 13132-13139
Published online Dec 14, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i46.13132
Aspartate transaminase to platelet ratio index in hepatitis C virus and Schistosomiasis coinfection
Moutaz Derbala, Mohammed Elshiekh Elbadri, Aliaa Mohamed Amer, Saad AlKaabi, Khaleel Hassan Sultan, Yasser Medhat Kamel, Eman Hassan Satti Elsayed, Tony Yervant Avades, Prem Chandra, Fatma M Shebl
Moutaz Derbala, Mohammed Elshiekh Elbadri, Saad AlKaabi, Khaleel Hassan Sultan, Yasser Medhat Kamel, Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Hamad Medical Corporation, Hamad General Hospital, Doha 00974, Qatar
Moutaz Derbala, Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Theodor Bilharz Research Institute, Giza 12411, Egypt
Moutaz Derbala, Medical Department, Weill Cornell Medical College, Doha 00974, Qatar
Aliaa Mohamed Amer, Laboratory Medicine and pathology, Hematology Section, Hamad Medical Corporation, Hamad General Hospital, Doha 00974, Qatar
Eman Hassan Satti Elsayed, General Medicine, Medical Education, Hamad Medical Corporation, Hamad General Hospital, Doha 00974, Qatar
Tony Yervant Avades, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Hamad Medical Corporation, Hamad General Hospital, Doha 00974, Qatar
Prem Chandra, Medical Research Center, Hamad Medical Corporation, Hamad General Hospital, Doha 00974, Qatar
Fatma M Shebl, Chronic Disease, Epidemiology Department, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, CT 06510, United States
Author contributions: Conception and design of this study was contributed by Derbala M, Elbadry ME and Amer AM; analysis and interpretation by Derbala M, Shebl FM and Amer AM; data collection were done by AlKaabi S, Sultan KH, Kamal YM, Elsayed EHS and Avades TY; critical revision of the article was done by Derbala M, Amer AM, Shebl FM and Alkaabi S; final revision of the article by Derbala M and statistical analysis was done by Chandra P and Shebl FM.
Institutional review board statement: The study has been approved by Hamad Medical Corporation Research and Ethical Committee,No. 14392/14.
Informed consent statement: Waiver form according to the Research committee roles for retrospective study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Moutaz Derbala, Consultant, Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Hamad Medical Corporation, Hamad General Hospital, Doha 00974, Qatar. mod2002@qatar-med.cornell.edu
Telephone: +974-4-4392532 Fax: +974-4-4392532
Received: June 30, 2015
Peer-review started: July 4, 2015
First decision: July 19, 2015
Revised: August 4, 2015
Accepted: September 14, 2015
Article in press: September 15, 2015
Published online: December 14, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: In few parts of the world, in addition to hepatitis C virus (HCV) other concomitant infections play a significant role in causing liver fibrosis. This study was conducted using data from 383 patients to evaluate accuracy of noninvasive method called aspartate transaminase to platelet ratio index (APRI). Its usefulness was explored for assessment of liver fibrosis. Also the role of anti-schistosomial antibody was evaluated for improving sensitivity and specificity of APRI. The APRI when used alone showed good sensitivity and specificity for accurately evaluating liver fibrosis in patients with HCV and schistosomiasis coinfection. The addition of antischistosomal antibody or HCV-RNA Titer, did not further improve the accuracy of APRI.