NAIF: A novel artificial intelligence-based tool for accurate diagnosis of stage F3/F4 liver fibrosis in the general adult population, validated with three external datasets.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a new AI-based tool called NAIF (NAFLD-AI-Fibrosis) in identifying individuals from the general population with advanced liver fibrosis (stage F3/F4). We compared NAIF's performance to two existing risk score calculators, aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI) and fibrosis-4 (Fib4). METHODS: To set up the algorithm for diagnosing severe liver fibrosis (defined as Fibroscan® values E ≥ 9.7 KPa), we used 19 blood biochemistry parameters and two demographic parameters in a group of 5,962 individuals from the NHANES population (2017-2020 pre-pandemic, public database). We then assessed the algorithm's performance by comparing its accuracy, precision, sensitivity, specificity, and F1 score values to those of APRI and Fib4 scoring systems. RESULTS: In a kept-out sub dataset of the NHANES population, NAIF achieved a predictive precision of 72 %, a sensitivity of 61 %, and a specificity of 77 % in correctly identifying adults (aged 18-79 years) with severe liver fibrosis. Additionally, NAIF performed well when tested with two external datasets of Italian patients with a Fibroscan® score E ≥ 9.7 kPa, and with an external dataset of patients with diagnosis of severe liver fibrosis through biopsy. CONCLUSIONS: The results of our study suggest that NAIF, using routinely available parameters, outperforms in sensitivity existing scoring methods (Fib4 and APRI) in diagnosing severe liver fibrosis, even when tested with external validation datasets. NAIF uses routinely available parameters, making it a promising tool for identifying individuals with advanced liver fibrosis from the general population. Word count abstract: 236.

The challenge of prognostic markers in acute pancreatitis: internist's point of view.

Acute pancreatitis, the most frequent hospitalization reason in internal medicine ward among gastrointestinal diseases, is burdened by high mortality rate. The disease manifests mainly in a mild form, but about 20-30% patients have a severe progress that requires intensive care. Patients presenting with acute pancreatitis should be clinically evaluated for organ failure signs and symptoms. Stratifying patients in the first days from symptoms onset is essential to determine therapy and care setting. The aim of our study is to evaluate prognostic factors for acute pancreatitis patients, hospitalized in internal medicine wards, and moreover, understanding the role of various prognostic scores validated in intensive care setting in predicting in-hospital mortality and/or admission to intensive care unit. We conducted a retrospective study enrolling all patients with diagnosis of acute pancreatitis admitted took an internal medicine ward between January 2013 and May 2019. Adverse outcome was considered in-hospital mortality and/or admission to intensive care unit. In total, 146 patients (137 with positive outcome and 9 with adverse outcome) were enrolled. The median age was (67.89 ± 16.44), with a slight prevalence of male (55.1%) compared to female (44.9%). C protein reactive (p = 0.02), creatinine (p = 0.01), sodium (p = 0.05), and troponin I (p = 0.013) after 48 h were significantly increased in patients with adverse outcome. In our study, progression in SOFA score independently increases the probability of adverse outcome in patients hospitalized with acute pancreatitis. SOFA score > 5 is highly predictive of in-hospital mortality (O.R. 32.00; C.I. 6.73-152.5; p = 0.001) compared to other scores. The use of an easy tool, validated in intensive care setting such as SOFA score, might help to better stratify the risk of in-hospital mortality and/or clinical worsening in patients hospitalized with acute pancreatitis in internal medicine ward.