title: Reproducibility of blood tests of liver fibrosis in clinical practice.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the inter-laboratory reproducibility of blood test for liver fibrosis: FibroMeter, Fibrotest, APRI and their composites variables.
  
  
  METHODS
  Four studies, including 147 patients, were performed: study #1 included 2 metachronous blood samples and 2 laboratories; studies #2, #3 and #4 included synchronous samples with assays delayed at day 1 in 12 laboratories, at day 0 in 10 laboratories and at day 0 or 1 in 2 laboratories, respectively. Agreement was evaluated by the intraclass correlation coefficient (r(ic)).
  
  
  RESULTS
  In studies #1, #2 and #4, r(ic) for FibroMeter was 0.893, 0.942 and 0.991, respectively. In study #3, the r(ic) were: FibroMeter: 0.963, Fibrotest: 0.984, APRI: 0.949. Large simulated variations in composite variables had a weak impact on FibroMeter.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  When blood marker limits are controlled, inter-laboratory agreement of blood tests is excellent in clinical practice conditions. Blood tests are robust against the variability of composite blood variables.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire HIFIH, UPRES 3859, IFR 132, Université d'Angers, 49045 Angers Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Calès
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Veillon
authors.forename: Anselme
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Konaté
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mathieu
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ternisien
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chevailler
authors.forename: Alban
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Godon
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gallois
authors.forename: Françoise
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Joubaud
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hubert-Fouchard
authors.forename: Frédéric
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Oberti
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Réaud
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hunault
authors.forename: Françoise
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mauriat
authors.forename: Françoise
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lunel-Fabiani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results