Long-term major adverse liver outcomes in 1,260 patients with non-cirrhotic NAFLD

Background & Aims

Long-term studies of the prognosis of NAFLD are scarce. Here, we investigated the risk of major adverse liver outcomes (MALO) in a large cohort of patients with NAFLD.

Methods

We conducted a cohort study with data from Swedish university hospitals. Patients (n = 1,260) with NAFLD without cirrhosis were diagnosed through biopsy or radiology, and had fibrosis estimated through vibration-controlled transient elastography, biopsy, or FIB-4 score between 1974 and 2020 and followed up through 2020. Each patient was matched on age, sex, and municipality with up to 10 reference individuals from the general population (n = 12,529). MALO were ascertained from Swedish national registers. The rate of events was estimated by Cox regression.

Results

MALO occurred in 111 (8.8%, incidence rate = 5.9/1,000 person-years) patients with NAFLD and 197 (1.6%, incidence rate = 1.0/1,000 person-years) reference individuals during a median follow up of 13 years. The rate of MALO was higher in patients with NAFLD (hazard ratio = 6.6; 95% CI = 5.2-8.5). The risk of MALO was highly associated with the stage of fibrosis at diagnosis. In the biopsy subcohort (72% of total sample), there was no difference in risk between patients with and without non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. The 20-year cumulative incidences of MALO were 2% for the reference population, 3% for patients with F0, and 35% for F3. Prognostic information from biopsy was comparable to FIB-4 (C-indices around 0.73 vs. 0.72 at 10 years).

Conclusions

This study provides updated information on the natural history of NAFLD, showing a high rate of progression to cirrhosis in F3 and a similar prognostic capacity of non-invasive tests to liver biopsy.

Impact and implications

Several implications for clinical care and future research may be noted based on these results. First, the risk estimates for cirrhosis development are important when communicating risk to patients and deciding on clinical monitoring and treatment. Estimates can also be used in updated health-economic evaluations, and for regulatory agencies. Second, our results again highlight the low predictive information obtained from ascertaining NASHstatus by histology and call for more objective means by which to define NASH. Such methods may include artificial intelligence-supported digital pathology. We highlight that NASH is most likely the causal factor for fibrosis progression in NAFLD, but the subjective definition makes the prognostic value of a histological NASH diagnosis of limited value. Third, the finding that prognostic information from biopsy and the very simple Fibrosis-4 score were comparable is important as it may lead to fewer biopsies and further move the field towards non-invasive means by which to define fibrosis and, importantly, use non-invasive tests as outcomes in clinical trials. However, all modalities had modest discriminatory capacity and new risk stratification systems are needed in NAFLD. Repeated measures of non-invasive scores may be a potential solution.

Training of computational algorithms to predict NAFLD activity score and fibrosis stage from liver histopathology slides

BACKGROUND

The incidence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and its progressive form, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), has been increasing for decades. Since the mainstay is lifestyle modification in this mainly asymptomatic condition, there is a need for accurate diagnostic methods.

OBJECTIVES

This study proposes a method with a computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) system to predict NAFLD Activity score (NAS scores-steatosis, lobular inflammation, and ballooning) and fibrosis stage from histopathology slides.

METHODS

A total of 87 pathology slides pairs (H&E and Trichrome-stained) were used for the study. Ground-truth NAS scores and fibrosis stages were previously identified by a pathologist. Each slide was split into 224 × 224 patches and fed into a feature extraction network to generate local features. These local features were processed and aggregated to obtain a global feature to predict the slide's scores. The effects of different training strategies, as well as training data with different staining and magnifications were explored. Four-fold cross validation was performed due to the small data size. Area Under the Receiver Operating Curve (AUROC) was utilized to evaluate the prediction performance of the machine-learning algorithm.

RESULTS

Predictive accuracy for all subscores was high in comparison with pathologist assessment. There was no difference among the 3 magnifications (5x, 10x, 20x) for NAS-steatosis and fibrosis stage tasks. A larger magnification (20x) achieved better performance for NAS-lobular scores. Middle-level magnification was best for NAS-ballooning task. Trichrome slides are better for fibrosis stage prediction and NAS-ballooning score prediction task. NAS-steatosis prediction had the best performance (AUC 90.48%) in the model. A good performance was observed with fibrosis stage prediction (AUC 83.85%) as well as NAS-ballooning prediction (AUC 81.06%).

CONCLUSIONS

These results were robust. The method proposed proved to be effective in predicting NAFLD Activity score and fibrosis stage from histopathology slides. The algorithms are an aid in having an accurate and systematic diagnosis in a condition that affects hundreds of millions of patients globally.

Effect of liver inflammation on accuracy of FibroScan device in assessing liver fibrosis stage in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection

BACKGROUND

Transient elastography (FibroScan) is a new and non-invasive test, which has been widely recommended by the guidelines of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) management for assessing hepatic fibrosis staging. However, some confounders may affect the diagnostic accuracy of the FibroScan device in fibrosis staging.

AIM

To evaluate the diagnostic value of the FibroScan device and the effect of hepatic inflammation on the accuracy of FibroScan in assessing the stage of liver fibrosis in patients with HBV infection.

METHODS

The data of 416 patients with chronic HBV infection who accepted FibroScan, liver biopsy, clinical, and biological examination were collected from two hospitals retrospectively. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to analyze the diagnostic performance of FibroScan for assessing the stage of liver fibrosis. Any discordance in fibrosis staging by FibroScan and pathological scores was statistically analyzed. Logistic regression and ROC analyses were used to analyze the accuracy of FibroScan in assessing the stage of fibrosis in patients with different degrees of liver inflammation. A non-invasive model was constructed to predict the risk of misdiagnosis of fibrosis stage using FibroScan.

RESULTS

In the overall cohort, the optimal diagnostic values of liver stiffness measurement (LSM) using FibroScan for significant fibrosis (≥ F2), severe fibrosis (≥ F3), and cirrhosis (F4) were 7.3 kPa [area under the curve (AUC) = 0.863], 9.7 kPa (AUC = 0.911), and 11.3 kPa (AUC = 0.918), respectively. The rate of misdiagnosis of fibrosis stage using FibroScan was 34.1% (142/416 patients). The group of patients who showed discordance between fibrosis staging using FibroScan and pathological scores had significantly higher alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase levels, and a higher proportion of moderate to severe hepatic inflammation, compared with the group of patients who showed concordance in fibrosis staging between the two methods. Liver inflammation activity over 2 (OR = 3.53) was an independent risk factor for misdiagnosis of fibrosis stage using FibroScan. Patients with liver inflammation activity ≥ 2 showed higher LSM values using FibroScan and higher rates of misdiagnosis of fibrosis stage, whereas the diagnostic performance of FibroScan for different fibrosis stages was significantly lower than that in patients with inflammation activity < 2 (all P < 0.05). A non-invasive prediction model was established to assess the risk of misdiagnosis of fibrosis stage using FibroScan, and the AUC was 0.701.

CONCLUSION

Liver inflammation was an independent risk factor affecting the diagnostic accuracy of FibroScan for fibrosis stage. A combination of other related non-invasive factors can predict the risk of misdiagnosis of fibrosis staging using FibroScan.

Ultrasound shear wave elastography and liver biopsy to determine liver fibrosis in adult patients

Introduction:

Liver biopsy is considered as the gold standard for diagnosis of chronic liver disease, yet liver biopsy is an invasive method that may be associated with complications. Therefore, non-invasive methods are needed to diagnose fibrosis. This study was conducted to compare liver stiffness measured by Shear-wave Elastography (SWE) to fibrosis in liver biopsy.

Method and Materials:

In this prospective study, 176 adult patients with chronic liver disease of different etiologies were included. All patients were evaluated using SWE and a liver biopsy. The diagnostic accuracy of SWE was evaluated using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) plots based on the degree of fibrosis (METAVIR score). SPSS software version 19 was used for statistical analysis and P < 0.05 considered significant.

Results:

There was a significant correlation between liver stiffness and fibrosis stage (ρ=0.939; P < 0.0001). The ROC curve AUC were 0.871, 0.895 and 0.937 for fibrosis stages F2, F3 and F4 respectively. The cutoff values were 8.6 kPa for F2, 10.7 kPa for F3, and 13.8 kPa for F4, with sensitivity and specificity of 81.76% and 77.01%, 90.20% and 78.40%, 89.53% and 94.38% respectively.

Conclusion:

The results of this study showed that liver SWE is an effective non-invasive method for assessing liver fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease of different etiologies.

Intravoxel incoherent motion imaging for diagnosing and staging the liver fibrosis and inflammation

PURPOSE

To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) model parameters for the diagnosis and staging of liver fibrosis and inflammation in patients with chronic hepatitis B.

METHODS

Fifty-four patients with chronic hepatitis B and 42 healthy volunteers were included in the study. All subjects were examined by 3 T magnetic resonance imaging. Diffusion-weighted imaging was undertaken with sixteen b values. IVIM parameters [D (true diffusion coefficient), D* (pseudo-diffusion coefficient), f (perfusion fraction)] were calculated. Histological evaluation of biopsy samples was considered the reference standard for the staging of liver fibrosis and inflammation. Differences in IVIM parameters between patient and control groups were analyzed. In the patient group, fibrosis stage and inflammation grade groups were analyzed with respect to IVIM parameters. The correlation was assessed between IVIM parameters and Ishak-modified scale of fibrosis stages and inflammation grades.

RESULTS

The D was significantly lower in the patient group than the control group, p = 0.038 with Cohen's d effect size of 0.452. D was significantly different between fibrosis stage levels. D values decreased in fibrosis stages from the minimal to moderate to marked fibrosis. Fibrosis grades significantly negatively correlated with D and D* values, p = 0.001, and 0.021, respectively. In addition, inflammation grades negatively correlated with f values, p = 0.047.

CONCLUSION

D values measured with IVIM imaging may help to diagnose liver fibrosis. IVIM imaging could be an alternative to liver biopsy for the staging of liver fibrosis.

Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common liver-related complication in patients with histopathologically-confirmed NAFLD in Japan

BACKGROUND

The incidence of liver-related events, cardiovascular events and type 2 diabetes mellitus in patients with histopathologically confirmed NAFLD remains unclear.

METHODS

We retrospectively investigated the incidence of liver events, cardiovascular events, malignancy, and type 2 diabetes mellitus in 402 Japanese patients with histopathologically confirmed NAFLD for a median follow-up of 4.2 years. We also investigated predictors of the development of hepatocellular carcinoma and type 2 diabetes mellitus in these patients.

RESULTS

The rate of liver-related events per 1000 person years was 4.17 (hepatocellular carcinoma, 3.67; hepatic encephalopathy, 1.60; esophago-gastric varices, 2.43; ascites, 0.80; and jaundice, 0.40). The rate of cardiovascular events and type 2 diabetes mellitus was 5.73 and 9.95, respectively. Overall mortality was 3.33 (liver-related events, 1.25; cardiovascular events, 0.42; and malignancies other than hepatocellular carcinoma, 0.83), in patients free of previous or current malignancies. Multivariate analyses identified old age (≥70 years) and advanced fibrosis stage 4 as significant determinants of hepatocellular carcinoma development, and hepatocyte steatosis (> 33%), female sex, and serum ferritin (≤80 μg/l) as significant determinants of type 2 diabetes mellitus development in these patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results highlighted the importance of cardiovascular and liver-related events in Japanese patients with histopathologically-confirmed NAFLD. Hepatocellular carcinoma was the most common liver-related event, and the incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma was more than half of that of cardiovascular events.

Ultrasound findings in autoimmune hepatitis

Ultrasound findings in autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) have not been reported systematically so far. The use of reliable and accurate noninvasive methods for determining fibrosis stage is important in evaluation of treatment efficacy and fibrosis regression in AIH. Imaging plays an important role in detection of complications and ruling out other possible causes of chronic liver diseases. Ultrasound elastography cut-off values in AIH patients are not the same as those in patients with chronic viral hepatitis or non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. AIH is characterized by wide fluctuations in inflammatory activity. Here we report on current knowledge of ultrasound findings in AIH.

Relationships between Genetic Variations of PNPLA3, TM6SF2 and Histological Features of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Japan

Background/Aims

It is important to determine the noninvasive parameters of histological features in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The aim of this study was to investigate the value of genetic variations as surrogate markers of histological features.

Methods

The parameters that affected the histological features of NAFLD were investigated in 211 Japanese patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD. The relationships between genetic variations in PNPLA3 rs738409 or TM6SF2 rs58542926 and histological features were analyzed. Furthermore, the impact of genetic variations that affected the pathological criteria for the diagnosis of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) (Matteoni classification and NAFLD activity score) was evaluated.

Results

The fibrosis stage of PNPLA3 GG was significantly more progressive than that of CG by multiple comparisons. Multivariate analysis identified PNPLA3 genotypes as predictors of fibrosis of stage 2 or more, but the impact tended to decrease at stage 3 or greater. There were no significant differences among the histological features of the three genotypes of TM6SF2. PNPLA3 genotypes partly affected the definition of NASH by the NAFLD activity score, but TM6SF2 genotypes did not affect the definition of NASH.

Conclusions

In Japanese patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD, PNPLA3 genotypes may partly affect histological features, including stage of fibrosis, but the TM6SF2 genotype does not affect histological features.

Fibrosis in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: Noninvasive assessment using computed tomography volumetry

AIM

To evaluate the diagnostic performance of computed tomography (CT) volumetry for discriminating the fibrosis stage in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

METHODS

A total of 38 NAFLD patients were enrolled. On the basis of CT imaging, the volumes of total, left lateral segment (LLS), left medial segment, caudate lobe, and right lobe (RL) of the liver were calculated with a dedicated liver application. The relationship between the volume percentage of each area and fibrosis stage was analyzed using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to determine the accuracy of CT volumetry for discriminating fibrosis stage.

RESULTS

The volume percentages of the caudate lobe and the LLS significantly increased with the fibrosis stage (r = 0.815, P < 0.001; and r = 0.465, P = 0.003, respectively). Contrarily, the volume percentage of the RL significantly decreased with fibrosis stage (r = -0.563, P < 0.001). The volume percentage of the caudate lobe had the best diagnostic accuracy for staging fibrosis, and the area under the ROC curve values for discriminating fibrosis stage were as follows: ≥ F1, 0.896; ≥ F2, 0.929; ≥ F3, 0.955; and ≥ F4, 0.923. The best cut-off for advanced fibrosis (F3-F4) was 4.789%, 85.7% sensitivity and 94.1% specificity.

CONCLUSION

The volume percentage of the caudate lobe calculated by CT volumetry is a useful diagnostic parameter for staging fibrosis in NAFLD patients.

Transient elastography in autoimmune hepatitis: Timing determines the impact of inflammation and fibrosis

BACKGROUND & AIMS

There is an unmet need for the non-invasive monitoring of fibrosis progression in patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH). The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic performance of transient elastography in patients with AIH and to investigate the impact of disease activity on its diagnostic accuracy.

METHODS

Optimal cut-offs were defined in a prospective pilot study (n=34) and the diagnostic performance of transient elastography validated in an independent second cohort (n=60). To explore the impact of disease activity on liver stiffness, patients were stratified according to biochemical response and the time interval between start of immunosuppression and transient elastography.

RESULTS

Liver stiffness strongly correlated with histological fibrosis stage (pilot study: ρ=0.611, p<0.001; validation cohort: ρ=0.777, p<0.0001). ROC curves defined an area under the receiver operating curve of 0.95 for diagnosing cirrhosis at the optimal cut-off of 16kPa. The performance of transient elastography was impaired when patients were analysed in whom transient elastography was performed within 3months from start of treatment. In this setting, liver stiffness correlated with histological grading (ρ=0.558, p=0.001), but not with staging. In contrast, using the cut-off of 16kPa, the accuracy for diagnosing cirrhosis was excellent in patients treated for 6months or longer (area under the receiver operating curve 1.0).

CONCLUSIONS

Liver inflammation has a major impact on liver stiffness in the first months of AIH treatment. However, transient elastography has an excellent diagnostic accuracy for separating severe from non-severe fibrosis after 6months of immunosuppressive treatment.

LAY SUMMARY

Transient elastography is a special ultrasound scan, which assesses liver stiffness as a surrogate marker for liver fibrosis/scarring. Transient elastography has been shown to be a reliable non-invasive method to assess liver fibrosis in various chronic liver diseases, it takes less than 5min and has a high patient acceptance. The current study validated for the first time this technique in a large cohort of patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) and demonstrates that it is a reliable tool to detect liver fibrosis in treated AIH. For the monitoring of potential disease progression under treatment, the validation of liver stiffness as non-invasive marker of liver fibrosis will greatly improve patient care in autoimmune hepatitis.

Impact of circulating miR-122 for histological features and hepatocellular carcinoma of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in Japan. Hepatol Int. 2016;10:647-656. [PMID: 27074850 DOI: 10.1007/s12072-016-9729-2]

BACKGROUND AND AIM

Relationships between circulating microRNA-122 (miR-122) and histological features of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are unclear.

METHODS

The impact of serum miR-122 levels for histological features and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was investigated in 305 Japanese patients with histological proven NAFLD. Twenty-three patients were with HCC at the time of diagnosis of NAFLD, and four patients developed HCC during the follow-up. The cross-sectional or longitudinal evaluations were performed to investigate the impact for HCC.

RESULTS

Serum miR-122 levels (calibrated relative to the median levels of patients) partly affected severity of steatosis, ballooning, lobular inflammation, and stage. Multivariate analysis identified HCC and/or histological components of NASH as morphological factors that independently influenced serum miR-122 levels at the diagnosis of NAFLD. There was a strong correlation between serum miR-122 levels and AST, ALT levels. In cross-sectional evaluation, serum miR-122 levels of patients without HCC were significantly higher than those with HCC in patients of stage 3 but not stage 4. In longitudinal evaluation of one patient with follow-up time of 25 years, from the diagnosis of NAFLD until HCC, serum miR-122 levels had already tended to decrease before the progression of fibrosis stage.

CONCLUSIONS

HCC and/or histological components of NASH affected serum miR-122 levels, independently. In longitudinal evaluation of HCC patients, serum miR-122 levels had already tended to decrease before the progression of fibrosis stage. Further prospective studies are needed to investigate the impact of serum miR-122 for histological features and hepatocarcinogenesis of NAFLD.

Evaluation of fluorescence imaging with indocyanine green in hepatocellular carcinoma

Background

We hypothesized that indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence patterns using Clairvivo OPT in resected liver specimens could confirm hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) better than earlier commercial imaging systems. This preclinical trial evaluated the effectiveness of fluorescence imaging as an intraoperative cancer navigation tool.

Methods

ICG fluorescence images of resected specimens from 190 patients with HCC were classified into two groups according to whether high fluorescence was seen in the HCC (high cancerous [HC] group) or in the surrounding liver tissue (high surrounding [HS] group). The HC and HS groups were sub-classified into whole and partial types and whole and ring types, respectively.

Results

The HC group had significantly higher prevalence of esophageal or gastric varices, and worse liver function than patients in the HS group. The HC group also had a higher percentage of limited resection cases than did the HS group. Cirrhotic liver histology was significantly more common in the HC group than in the HS group. Multivariate analysis revealed that the HC group was a predictive factor for cirrhosis in HCC patients. Among the HC patients, a higher percentage of well-differentiated HCC cases were seen in the partial-type subgroup than in the whole-type subgroup (23/48 (48 %) vs. 7/68 (10 %)). In the HS group, the ring-type subgroup had a higher percentage of poorly differentiated HCC cases than did the whole-type subgroup (6/37 (16 %) vs. 0/37 (0 %)).

Conclusion

Tumor differentiation and fibrosis in the non-cancerous liver parenchyma could affect ICG fluorescence imaging in HCC. ICG fluorescence imaging may be a good indication for fibrosis stage. In future, we will try to evaluate fluorescence imaging with ICG for intraoperative cancer navigation in HCC, using a portable near-infrared fluorescence imaging system.

Treatment optimization of naïve HCV-1 patients using IL28B, RVR and fibrosis stage

The treatment of patients with HCV genotype 1 is quickly changing. The clinician could optimize the selection of patients who may benefit from standard therapy with pegylated-interferon and ribavirin instead of more expensive new combinations with the directly acting antivirals. We retrospectively examined in our cohort of 232 patients with genotype 1 infection the role of interleukin 28B (both rs8099917 and rs12979860), fibrosis stage and rapid virological response. Global SVR in TT/CC patients was 88.3% (98% in F0-F1, 80% in F2-F3); in TT/TC was 68.2 (85% in F0-F1, 71.4% in F2-F3). Rapid virological response was related to rs12979860 CC genotype but is not useful to predict the virological response in TG/GG patients at rs8099917. The standard dual therapy may be successfully administered in all TT/CC and TT/TC patients without F4 fibrosis score. Conversely, patients with TG/CC or GG/CC genotypes should be treated with other therapeutic options.

Real Time Elastography Assessment of Fibrosis In Chronic Viral Hepatitis

Fibrosis assessment is a necessary component of liver disease evaluation not only for prognosis but also for future therapeutic management. Our study objective was to evaluate the accuracy of quantitative assessment of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic viral hepatitis B or C, relying on RTSE results, a method approved and acknowledged in Europe.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Sixty-three consecutive patients diagnosed with chronic viral hepatitis B or C between January 2014 and December 2014 at the Emergency County Hospital of Craiova were enrolled in the study. Patients underwent both TE and RTSE.

RESULTS

The reference method used for staging liver fibrosis was TE, based on its recognition and validation by the European guidelines. Fibrosis was classified as follows: 17.47% of patients were staged as F0, 11.11% of patients staged as F1, 14.28% as F2, 17.47% as F3, and 39.68% as F4. Correlation coefficients between measurements for each parameter was done with ANOVA test, in order to identify any differences, according to the fibrosis stage. Valuable information was obtained suggesting that MEAN, SD, %AREA, COMP, Skewness, IDM and Contrast had highly significant differences when related to the Fibrosis Stage (FS) (p<0,001) and ASM had significant differences (p<0,05). As for Kurtosis, ENT and Correlation parameters no significant differences with the FS was found.

CONCLUSIONS

Imaging methods of assessing liver fibrosis are of special interest in chronic liver fibrosis assessment. RTSE comes as a potential new technology based on elastogram evaluation which may prove to be more efficient along with larger prospective studies.

Fibrosis progression in interferon treatment-naive Chinese plasma donors with chronic hepatitis C for 20 years: a cohort study

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the progression of fibrosis and factors influencing this in interferon (IFN) treatment-naive Chinese plasma donors infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) for approximately 20 years.

METHODS

From July 2010 to June 2011, we investigated 122 IFN treatment-naive chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients infected by plasma donation in 1992-1995. Liver fibrosis stage and inflammation grade were evaluated by Metavir and Scheuer scoring systems, respectively.

RESULTS

One hundred and twenty patients underwent liver biopsy. Liver biopsy was not performed in one patient with cirrhosis due to ascites, and another patient was excluded because of an invalid biopsy specimen. Cirrhosis was observed in three patients (fibrosis stage F4 in two patients revealed by biopsy, and one patient with ascites confirmed by physical and Doppler ultrasound examination). Fibrosis stages F1 and F2 were present in 55 and 50 patients, respectively. The severity of liver inflammation was independently related to moderate to severe fibrosis (F ≥2). Older age and male sex showed an increasing tendency for more severe fibrosis (F3/F4) in the present cohort.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on histopathology results, the progression of fibrosis in patients with CHC infected by repeated plasma donation is slow after HCV infection of approximately 20 years. Liver inflammation is closely related to the development of moderate to severe liver fibrosis.

Factors correlating with acoustic radiation force impulse elastography in chronic hepatitis C

AIM: To investigate the factors other than fibrosis stage correlating with acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastograpy in chronic hepatitis C.

METHODS: ARFI elastograpy was performed in 108 consecutive patients with chronic hepatitis C who underwent a liver biopsy. The proportion of fibrosis area in the biopsy specimens was measured by computer-assisted morphometric image analysis.

RESULTS: ARFI correlated significantly with fibrosis stage (β = 0.1865, P < 0.0001) and hyaluronic acid levels (β = 0.0008, P = 0.0039) in all patients by multiple regression analysis. Fibrosis area correlated significantly with ARFI by Spearman’s rank correlation test but not by multiple regression analysis. ARFI correlated significantly with body mass index (BMI) (β = -0.0334, P = 0.0001) in F 0 or F 1, with γ-glutamyltranspeptidase levels (β = 0.0048, P = 0.0012) in F 2, and with fibrosis stage (β = 0.2921, P = 0.0044) and hyaluronic acid levels (β = 0.0012, P = 0.0025) in F 3 or F 4. The ARFI cutoff value was 1.28 m/s for F≥ 2, 1.44 m/s for F≥ 3, and 1.73 m/s for F 4.

CONCLUSION: ARFI correlated with fibrosis stage and hyaluronic acid but not with inflammation. ARFI was affected by BMI, γ-glutamyltranspeptidase, and hyaluronic acid in each fibrosis stage.

CCL2-2518 A/G and CCR2 190 A/G do not influence the outcome of hepatitis C virus infection in the Spanish population

AIM: To assess whether CCL2 or interactions between this chemokine and its receptor (CCR2) are associated with outcomes of chronic hepatitis C and with responses to antiviral therapy.

METHODS: Two hundred and eighty-four patients with chronic hepatitis C and 193 non-infected matched controls were included in this study. Patients were categorized according to their Scheuer score of hepatic fibrosis as F0-F2 (n = 202) or F3-F4 (n = 82) and according to their response to anti-Hepatitis C virus (HCV) therapy as sustained response (SR, n = 101) or non-sustained response (NSR, n = 98). Genotyping of the -2518 (A/G) CCL2 was performed using PCR-RFLP, genotyping of the 190 (A/G) CCR2 using a PCR-ARMS system, and genotyping of the rs3138042 (G/A) CCR2 using Taqman probes.

RESULTS: Univariate analyses identified 4 parameters (infection duration time, viral genotype, gender and AST levels) that tended to influence fibrosis and 7 parameters (CCL2G, CCL2ACCR2A, viremia levels, fibrosis stage, viral genotype, infection duration time and AST levels) that significantly influenced or tended to influence response to treatment. Multivariate analysis identified gender and AST levels as parameters that independently influenced fibrosis stage and viral genotype and infection duration time were the two parameters that independently influenced response to treatment.

CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that the mutations studied in the gene pair CCL2/CCR2 do not play a major role in the outcome and response to treatment for HCV infection in the Spanish population.