Introduction< /p>
Several hepatitis B virus (HBV) serum markers have been identified as risk for liver fibrosis in patients with chronic HBV infection Factors, some non-invasive fibrosis tests based on serum markers are now being used to identify the severity of liver fibrosis in patients. This study aimed to determine the relationship between serum levels of hepatitis B core-associated antigen (HBcrAg) and liver fibrosis in treatment-naive patients with chronic HBV infection , and other indices associated with liver fibrosis.
Methods
A total of 246 cases were included in this study Newly treated patients with chronic HBV infection. All patients underwent liver biopsy at baseline. Liver fibrosis was staged using the METAVIR score, and 15, 140, 50, 26, and 15 patients had liver fibrosis in stages F0, F1, F2, F3, and F4, respectively. Biochemical, serological and virological parameters were measured using standard laboratory procedures. Serum levels of HBcrAg in patients were detected by ELISA.
Results
and no significant liver fibrosis serumHBcrAg levels were significant< /strong>higher, but no significant difference between patients with F2, F3, and F4 stages.
serumHBcrAg (OR, 2.18;95 %CI, 1.51-3.16), Albumin(ALB ) (OR, 0.60; 95%CI, 0.41-0.87), prothrombin activity strong>(PTA) (OR, 0.58; 95%CI, 0.40-0.83) and platelets(PLT strong>)count (OR, 0.38; 95%CI, 0.25-0.57) vs. Significant liver fibrosis (METAVIR score F2-F4 stage) was associated (Table 1).
Table 1 Logistic regression analysis of the correlation between liver fibrosis and various indicators
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*p<0.01
significantly hepatic PLT and PTAsignificantly lower in the fibrosis group. PLT decreased significantly with increasing liver fibrosis stage (Fig. 1A). Compared with the group without significant hepatic fibrosis, patients with F3 and F4 stages had significantly lower PTA (Fig. 1C). ALB was reduced< strong>Trend, but there was no significant difference between these 4 groups (Figure 1B).
Fig 1 Different stages of patients PLT counts and ALB, PTA levels
serumHBcrAgLevelAbleAccurateIdentificationsignificant liverfibrotic patients< /strong>, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) was 0.81 (95% CI, 0.75-0.88). The APRI, FIB-4 index, and ALBI score identified significant liver fibrosis with areas under the ROC curve of 0.74 (95%CI, 0.66-0.81), 0.73 (95%CI, 0.65-0.80), and 0.63 (95%CI, 0.63-0.80), respectively. 0.55-0.72). Compared with these three indicators, the accuracy of identifying significant liver fibrosis based on HBcrAg level was higher than FIB-4 index (p=0.0479) and ALBI score (p=0.0030).
Conclusions
This study shows that serum HBcrAg , ALB, PTA levels and PLT counts were associated with significant liver fibrosis in treatment-naïve patients with chronic HBV infection. Serum HBcrAg level can accurately identify patients with significant liver fibrosis (METAVIR score F2-F4 stage), and HBcrAg level is more effective than FIB-4 index and ALBI score.
References: Liu R, Li M, Lu Y, et al. Hepatitis B core-related antigen serum levels are associated with significant liver fibrosis in treatment-naive chronic HBV infection patients[J]. J Viral Hepat. 2022 Mar 31. doi: 10.1111/jvh.13674.< /p>