Non Invasive Methods versus Liver Biopsy for Making Therapeutic Decisions in Chronic Hepatitis B Patients with High HBV DNA Levels and Mildly Elevated Transaminases
Correspondence Address :
Piyush Kumar Thakur,
Department of Gastroenterology, IMS, BHU, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India.
E-mail: dr.piyushthakur@gmail.com
Introduction: Staging of liver fibrosis is essential for making therapeutic decisions in patients with Chronic Hepatitis B (CHB) having raised Hepatitis B Virus Deoxyribonucleic Acid (HBV DNA) levels (>2000 IU/ml) and normal or mildly elevated Alanine Transaminase (ALT). Though the gold standard for assessment of liver fibrosis has been liver biopsy, many non invasive models have been developed to mitigate the risks associated with liver biopsy and overcome its limitations.
Aim: To evaluate the non invasive models predictive of significant fibrosis in this selected subgroup of Chronic Hepatitis B patients.
Materials and Methods: Fifty-six CHB patients were evaluated. This longitudinal observational study was conducted at Sir Sunderlal Hospital, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University from February 2017 to July 2018 on 56 patients. Liver Stiffness Measurement (LSM), Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST)to Platelet Ratio Index (APRI), FIBROSIS-4 (FIB-4) and Gamma-Glutamyl Transpeptidase (GGT) to platelet ratio (GPR) were estimated. Liver fibrosis staging was done using Metavir score. Significant fibrosis corresponds to Metavir score F2-F4 and advanced fibrosis as more than F3.The performance of non invasive methods was assessed using Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves. Z -test was used to compare Area Under ROC Curves (AUROCs).
Results: Twenty-one patients (37.5%) had significant fibrosis, out of which seven had F3-F4 fibrosis. Patients with F2-F4 fibrosis had higher age, Hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positivity, HBV DNA, ALT, AST, GGT, LSM, APRI, FIB-4 and GPR values than patients with F0-F1 fibrosis. Metavir fibrosis stages positively correlated with LSM values (r=0.831, p<0.0001), APRI (r=0.338, p=0.011), FIB-4 (r=0.375, p=0.003) and GPR (r=0.36, p=0.012). To predict advanced fibrosis, the AUROC of LSM had higher AUROC than APRI (0.956 vs 0.755, p=0.01), FIB-4 (0.956vs 0.786, p=0.01) and was comparable to GPR (0.956 vs 0.895, p=0.2).
Conclusion: Transient Elastography (TE) is a reliable non invasive test for the diagnosis of liver fibrosis. GPR is a new model which is comparable to APRI and FIB-4 but inferior to TE.
Deoxyribonucleic acid, Fibrosis-4, Gamma glutamate to platelet ratio, Hepatitis B Virus, Liver fibrosis, Transient elastography
10.7860/JCDR/2021/49131.15616
Date of Submission: Feb 22, 2021
Date of Peer Review: Jun 03, 2021
Date of Acceptance: Jul 20, 2021
Date of Publishing: Nov 01, 2021
AUTHOR DECLARATION:
• Financial or Other Competing Interests: None
• Was Ethics Committee Approval obtained for this study? Yes
• Was informed consent obtained from the subjects involved in the study? Yes
• For any images presented appropriate consent has been obtained from the subjects. Yes
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