title: Biochemical markers for non-invasive assessment of disease stage in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Digestive Diseases, Clinical Centre of Serbia, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia. altam@eunet.yu
authors.forename: Tamara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Alempijevic
authors.forename: Miodrag
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krstic
authors.forename: Rada
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jesic
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Jovanovic
authors.forename: Aleksandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sokic Milutinovic
authors.forename: Nada
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kovacevic
authors.forename: Slobodan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Krstic
authors.forename: Dragan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Popovic
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D002784:Cholesterol; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases; D000410:Alanine Transaminase; D000469:Alkaline Phosphatase