Reproducibility of blood tests of liver fibrosis in clinical practice.
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.
Calès
Paul
P
Laboratoire HIFIH, UPRES 3859, IFR 132, Université d'Angers, 49045 Angers Cedex, France.
Veillon
Pascal
P
Konaté
Anselme
A
Mathieu
Elisabeth
E
Ternisien
Catherine
C
Chevailler
Alain
A
Godon
Alban
A
Gallois
Yves
Y
Joubaud
Françoise
F
Hubert-Fouchard
Isabelle
I
Oberti
Frédéric
F
Réaud
Stéphane
S
Hunault
Gilles
G
Mauriat
Françoise
F
Lunel-Fabiani
Françoise
F
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