title: Biochemical scores could reflect histological activity in chronic hepatitis C.
abstract: Eighty-one patients with HCV positive chronic active hepatitis (CAH) were studied to correlate, in multivariate regression analysis, liver tests with the histological activity index (HAI). The median HAI value (9.4) divided the patients into two groups; 44 under the 9.4 value (moderate CAH) and 37 above (severe CAH). Multiple regression improved the significance of nine biochemical parameters related to HAI in univariate analysis, and backward stepwise analysis identified the combination of alanine-aminotransferase (ALT), gammaglobulins (gamma GL), gammaglutamyl transpeptidase (gamma GT) and prolyl-hydroxylase (PH) as the best relationship with HAI (R = 0.520, p < 0.0001). A biochemical activity index (BAI) calculated as: 2.304 + ALT x 0.013 + gamma GL x 1.76 + gamma GT x 0.008 + PH x 0.012 showed the higher significant difference between moderate (7.7 +/- 1.3) and severe (12.2 +/- 2) CAH (p < 0.0001). These results suggest that this BAI could be a pointer for checking activity of chronic liver diseases.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Interna, Università di Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Testa
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Picciotto
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lapertosa
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Caglieris
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Risso
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Borzone
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Campo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Alvarez
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Varagona
authors.forename: P B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Lantieri
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001647:Bile Acids and Salts / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000097:blood* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000473:pathology*; D006521:Hepatitis, Chronic / Q000097:blood* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology; D006801:Humans; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011347:Procollagen / Q000097:blood; D012044:Regression Analysis
chemical_list: D001647:Bile Acids and Salts; D011347:Procollagen