Circulating standard CD44 isoform in patients with liver disease: relationship with other soluble adhesion molecules and evaluation of diagnostic usefulness.
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.
Falleti
E
E
Dipartimento di Petologia e Medicina Sperimentale e Clinica, Università degli Studi, Udine, Italy.
Pirisi
M
M
Fabris
C
C
Bortolotti
N
N
Soardo
G
G
Gonano
F
F
Bartoli
E
E
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
D015415:Biomarkers; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors