Biochemical markers for non-invasive assessment of disease stage in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate different biochemical markers and their ratios in the assessment of primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) stages.


METHODS
This study included 112 patients with PBC who underwent a complete clinical investigation. We analyzed the correlation (Spearman's test) between ten biochemical markers and their ratios with different stages of PBC. The discriminative values were compared using areas under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves.


RESULTS
The mean age of patients included in the study was 53.88 +/- 10.59 years, including 104 females and 8 males. We found a statistically significant correlation between PBC stage and Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) to platelet ratio (APRI), ALT/platelet count, AST/ALT, ALT/AST and ALT/Cholesterol ratios, with the values of Spearman's rho of 0.338, 0.476, 0.404, 0.356, 0.351 and 0.325, respectively. The best sensitivity and specificity was shown for AST/ALT, with an area under ROC of 0.660.


CONCLUSIONS
Biochemical markers and their ratios do correlate with different sensitivity to and specificity of PBC disease stage. The use of biochemical markers and their ratios in clinical evaluation of PBC patients may reduce, but not eliminate, the need for liver biopsy.
Alempijevic
Tamara
T
Institute for Digestive Diseases, Clinical Centre of Serbia, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia. altam@eunet.yu
Krstic
Miodrag
M
Jesic
Rada
R
Jovanovic
Ivan
I
Sokic Milutinovic
Aleksandra
A
Kovacevic
Nada
N
Krstic
Slobodan
S
Popovic
Dragan
D
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood; D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase / Q000097:blood; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases / Q000097:blood; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008105:Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary / Q000097:blood / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010976:Platelet Count; D012372:ROC Curve; D055771:Serbia
D002784:Cholesterol; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases; D000410:Alanine Transaminase; D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase