Hepatitis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Hepatitis, including details on hepatitis a, b, c, causes, symptoms.

Assessment of FIBROSpect II to detect hepatic fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C patients.

Zaman A, Rosen HR, Ingram K, Corless CL, Oh E, Smith K

Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon 97201, USA. zamana@ohsu.edu

BACKGROUND: The degree of liver fibrosis in patients with Hepatitis C (HCV) provides important prognostic information; however, the only current method available to obtain this information is by performing a liver biopsy. Liver biopsies are invasive, associated with complications, and costly. There has been recent interest in developing a panel of serum markers that can reliably predict the presence of fibrosis and, thus, obviate the need for a liver biopsy. Our objective was to prospectively validate a panel of serum fibrosis markers (FIBROSpect(SM) II) that has been recently developed. METHODS: Serum was obtained from 108 consecutive HCV (15% with HCV/ETOH) patients seen in a hepatology clinic at a single tertiary care center at the time of liver biopsy. The performance of FIBROSpect II (consisting of 3 fibrosis markers: hyaluronic acid, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 1, and alpha-2-macroglobulin) in differentiating mild (F0-F1) from significant (F2-F4) fibrosis was assessed by comparing the panel results with performed liver biopsy. RESULTS: The prevalence of significant fibrosis in the study group was 36.1%. The diagnostic value of the serum marker panel to detect significant fibrosis as assessed by area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.826. Performance characteristics are as follows: sensitivity 71.8%, specificity 73.9%, positive predictive value 60.9%, negative predictive value 82.3%, and overall accuracy of 73.1%. CONCLUSION: This prospective study supports the clinical utility of serum markers in detecting fibrosis and validates the performance of FIBROSpect II in a prospective cohort of patients. The high negative predictive value of the test provides a reliable alternative to rule out severe fibrosis.

Published 12 March 2007 in Am J Med, 120(3): 280.e9-14.
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