Biochemical markers for non-invasive assessment of disease stage in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis
Year: 2009
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: AIM: To evaluate different biochemical markers and their ratios in the assessment of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) stages. METHODS: This study included 112 patients with PBC who underwent a complete clinical investigation. We analyzed the correlation (Spearman's test) between ten biochemical markers and their ratios with different stages of PBC. The discriminative values were compared using areas under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. RESULTS: The mean age of patients included in the study was 53.88 +/- 10.59 years, including 104 females and 8 males. We found a statistically significant correlation between PBC stage and Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) to platelet ratio (APRI), ALT/platelet count, AST/ALT, ALT/AST and ALT/Cholesterol ratios, with the values of Spearman's rho of 0.338, 0.476, 0.404, 0.356, 0.351 and 0.325, respectively. The best sensitivity and specificity was shown for AST/ALT, with an area under ROC of 0.660. CONCLUSION: Biochemical markers and their ratios do correlate with different sensitivity to and specificity of PBC disease stage. The use of biochemical markers and their ratios in clinical evaluation of PBC patients may reduce, but not eliminate, the need for liver biopsy.
DOI: 10.3748/wjg.15.591
Authors: Tamara Alempijevic, Miodrag Krstic, Rada Jesic, Ivan Jovanovic, Aleksandra Sokic Milutinovic, Nada Kovacevic, Slobodan Krstic, Dragan Popovic
Language: English
Topic: Liver Diseases and Immunity
Subfield: Hepatology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W2059953419