Usefulness of the serum KL-6 assay in patients with hepatitis C virus.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study is to evaluate the serum level of KL-6 in hepatitis C virus (HCV)-positive patients with chronic liver disease.


RESULTS
Subjects consisted of 502 HCV-positive patients. The serum samples of these patients stored at -80 degrees C were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for KL-6 at the same time. The cutoff point of the serum KL-6 level was defined as 500 U/ml. The serum KL-6 level of the 502 patients ranged between 71 and 2,295 (median, 223) U/ml. Thirty-two of the 502 (6.4%) patients showed an elevated KL-6 level of >500 U/ml. Three of the 32 (9.4%) patients with elevated KL-6 level >500 U/ml had idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Multivariate analysis showed that patients achieved elevated KL-6 when: (1) they had hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC; p = 0.0007), and (2) age was >60 years (p = 0.0085). The HCC rate was 37.5% (12/32) in the patients with elevated KL-6 and 8.3% (39/470) in the patients with normal KL-6 group. The median (range) age was 70 (56-77) years in the patients with elevated KL-6 group and 60 (12-92) years in the patients with normal KL-6.


CONCLUSIONS
The patients with HCC aged >60 years had significantly elevated serum levels of KL-6.
Arase
Yasuji
Y
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatic Research Unit, Toranomon Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. es9y-ars@asahi-net.or.jp
Ikeda
Kenji
K
Suzuki
Fumitaka
F
Suzuki
Yoshiyuki
Y
Saitoh
Satoshi
S
Kobayashi
Masahiro
M
Akuta
Norio
N
Someya
Takashi
T
Hosaka
Tetsuya
T
Sezaki
Hitomi
H
Kobayashi
Mariko
M
Kumada
Hiromitsu
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D000941:Antigens / Q000097:blood*; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000097:blood*; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018396:Mucin-1; D009077:Mucins / Q000097:blood*; D011658:Pulmonary Fibrosis / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis
D000941:Antigens; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D015415:Biomarkers; D006023:Glycoproteins; C060192:MUC1 protein, human; D018396:Mucin-1; D009077:Mucins