title: Circulating standard CD44 isoform in patients with liver disease: relationship with other soluble adhesion molecules and evaluation of diagnostic usefulness.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To verify the diagnostic usefulness of soluble CD44 (sCD44) in liver diseases.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied 142 subjects (90 male, 52 female): 14 had acute hepatitis (AH); 45, noncirrhotic chronic liver disease (CLD); 34, cirrhosis; 35 had extrahepatic diseases (EHD); and 14 were healthy controls. sCD44, soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (slCAM-1) and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) were measured immunoenzymatically.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with AH or cirrhosis had higher sCD44 in comparison to CLD, EHD, and controls (p < 0.01). On univariate analysis, sCD44 was associated with sVCAM-1, sICAM-1, bilirubin, cholinesterase, aspartate aminotransferase, and alkaline phosphatase (p < 0.001). By stepwise discriminant analysis, a set of variables, including sCD44 and sVCAM-1, were entered into a model that allocated correctly 79% of observations (p < 0.0001). However, when adhesion molecules were excluded, the model could still allocate correctly 72% of observations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although sCD44 concentration increases during severe acute or chronic liver disease, its measurement adds little to the clinical information provided by traditional liver biochemistry.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Petologia e Medicina Sperimentale e Clinica, Università degli Studi, Udine, Italy.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Falleti
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pirisi
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fabris
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bortolotti
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Soardo
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gonano
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bartoli
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000097:blood; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D005260:Female; D006505:Hepatitis / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors / Q000097:blood*; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012044:Regression Analysis
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors