The APRI may be enhanced by the use of the FIBROSpect II in the estimation of fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C.

BACKGROUND: Multiple serum markers to estimate hepatic fibrosis in chronic liver disease have been proposed. The AST/Platelet Ratio Index (APRI) is a simple biochemical index that has been shown to be useful and accurate in about 50% of patients with chronic hepatitis C. We determined if the combination of the APRI and the FIBROSpect II, a commercially available hepatic fibrosis marker that measures 3 components of the extracellular hepatic matrix, would further help distinguish mild from significant fibrosis in a group of patients with chronic hepatitis C. METHODS: In an outpatient setting, 93 consecutive patients were studied who were undergoing staging liver biopsy for chronic hepatitis C who had a liver biopsy length>or=1.5 cm. All had blood drawn at the time of the biopsy. Liver biopsies were staged for fibrosis by the Batts Ludwig criteria (F0-F4). Patients with previous anti-viral therapy, hepatocellular carcinoma, an organ transplant, or co-infection with HIV or hepatitis B were excluded. The APRI was calculated and FIBROSpect II determined. RESULTS: The AUC of the ROC curve for the APRI and FIBROSpect II were 0.887 and 0.879 respectively. Using cutoffs of or=1.2 for significant fibrosis, the APRI correctly estimated 19 of 20 patients with mild fibrosis for an NPV of 95.0%, and 31 of 33 patients with significant fibrosis for a PPV of 93.6%. The FIBROSpect II also works best utilizing 2 cutoffs, and using cutoffs of or=85 it correctly identified 18 of 18 patients with mild fibrosis and all 26 patients with significant fibrosis for an NPV and PPV of 100% for both. Among the 40 patients who could not be classified by the APRI, an additional 16 could be correctly classified using the FIBROSpect II with cutoffs of or=85. This lowered the indeterminate zone from 43.0 to 25.8%. By combining the APRI and the FIBROSpect II, the AUC for the ROC curve improved significantly to 0.931 (p=0.013). CONCLUSIONS: The APRI and the FIBROSpect II are both accurate tests for separating mild from significant fibrosis. By using the APRI as the initial screen, >50% of patients with mild or significant fibrosis can be correctly identified. If the patient falls in the indeterminate zone, then the more expensive FIBROSpect II could be obtained. This strategy could decrease the number of liver biopsies.

APRI: an easy and validated predictor of hepatic fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C.

GOALS: To evaluate the aspartate aminotransferase/platelet ratio index (APRI) as a predictor of the presence or absence of significant fibrosis on liver biopsy of patients with chronic hepatitis C (HCV). BACKGROUND: The decision to treat HCV is often made on the basis of the presence or absence of significant fibrosis on the liver biopsy. Because liver biopsy is expensive and invasive a noninvasive marker to evaluate hepatic fibrosis would be useful. The APRI is an easy to calculate index that is one of several markers that have been proposed. STUDY: We retrospectively reviewed the charts of 339 patients with chronic HCV who had liver biopsies from January 2000 to March 2003. We subsequently evaluated 151 patients receiving pretreatment evaluation liver biopsies who had serum aspartate aminotransferase, platelets, routine liver function tests, and demographic data obtained. All liver biopsies were staged by the Batts Ludwig criteria. RESULTS: The area under the curve of the receiver operator characteristics of the calculated APRI compared with the liver biopsy demonstrated that the fibrosis score was 0.889 in the prospective group and 0.790 in the retrospective group. To achieve predictive values of approximately 90%, useful cutoffs were found at 0.40 and 1.5 in the retrospective study, and 0.42 and 1.2 in the prospective study leaving intermediate zones of 58.9% and 41.1%, respectively. In the prospective group, 34 of 36 patients with a value of <0.42 were accurately predicted as having mild fibrosis, whereas 50 of 54 patients with a value >1.2 were accurately predicted to have significant fibrosis. CONCLUSIONS: The APRI is a good estimator of hepatic fibrosis and was more accurate in a prospective group than a retrospective one. It potentially could be used to decrease the number of liver biopsies.

Hepatic perfusion as a predictor of mortality after transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt creation in patients with refractory ascites.

PURPOSE: To determine whether hepatic perfusion patterns predict mortality after transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) creation in patients with severe ascites. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective study included 22 patients who had enhanced cine magnetic resonance (MR) imaging performed immediately before TIPS creation in the angled coronal plane including the left kidney, liver, and main portal vein. Regions of interest were centered over the liver and kidney, and perfusion curves were generated and reviewed before the standard TIPS procedure was performed. Four patients did not undergo TIPS creation as a result of very poor hepatic perfusion by MR. All patients were followed clinically and by ultrasound surveillance of their shunt. RESULTS: Eleven patients died within 6 months, including all four patients who did not have a TIPS because of MR evidence of poor hepatic perfusion. Of these 11 patients, eight (73%) had unfavorable liver flow consisting of diminished enhancement compared to the kidney and early peak enhancement of less than 50 seconds. The surviving patients all showed a delayed peak enhancement of greater than 50 seconds. CONCLUSIONS: In patients undergoing TIPS creation for refractory ascites, blunted arterial-type hepatic enhancement is a poor prognostic sign. Cine MR imaging with evaluation of hepatic perfusion can be performed and reviewed before the TIPS procedure. Alternative techniques for ascites reduction may be preferred for patients with unfavorable hepatic perfusion.