Evaluation of the diagnostic validity of noninvasive tests for predicting liver fibrosis stage in chronic hepatitis B patients.

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of noninvasive tests in predicting liver fibrosis levels in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 539 treatment naive patients aged 18 years and older with CHB who underwent liver biopsy were included. Patients with coinfections and comorbidities were excluded. Data were obtained retrospectively from patient' follow- up files. Liver biopsy was evaluated according to the Ishak scoring system. SPSS 22.0 program was used for statistical analysis. Diagnostic sensitivity of APRI, FIB-4, NLR, GPR, AAR, RPR, API, King's score, Fibro Q and MPV was determined for predicting ≥F2, ≥F3, ≥F4, ≥F5 groups. RESULTS: The median age of the CHB patients was 41 ±11.57 / year and 49.2% of the patients were female. The distribution of fibrosis stages was : F0, 16.5% ; F1, 26.4% ; F2, 39.7% ; F3, 10.4% ; F4, 4.1% ; F5, 2.4% ; F6 0.4%. Age, AST, ALT, GGT, ALP, RDW, HBV DNA levels were significantly higher, platelet and albumin levels were significantly lower in the ≥F3 group. All noninvasive tests except NLR and AAR predicted ≥F3 adequately (AUROC >0.5). King's score for predicting ≥F2, ≥F5, and GPR for predicting ≥F3 had the highest diagnostic power. The tests predicted the fibrosis stage better, as the fibrosis stage progressed. CONCLUSION: As a result, most of the noninvasive tests we evaluated could predict significant fibrosis and cirrhosis with significant accuracy. The rate of unnecessary biopsies can be reduced with the help of these noninvasive tests.

Seroprevalence of measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella zoster virus antibodies among healthcare students: analysis of vaccine efficacy and cost-effectiveness.

OBJECTIVE: The aims of this study are to determine the seroprevalence for measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella zoster virus (VZV) in a cohort of nursing students, to evaluate vaccination response rates of nonimmune students, and to calculate the cost of vaccinating students based on seroprevalence screening. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted August 2015-November 2016 among 326 healthy nursing students aged 14.1-18.1 years. Serum IgG antibodies were measured by ELISA. Results were analyzed by the Chi-square test; a p-value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The number of seropositive participants (%) was 308 (94.5%) for rubella, 295 (90.5%) for VZV, 244 (74.9%) for measles, and 219 (67.2%) for mumps. A significant correlation was found between measles IgG and age. A relationship was also observed between VZV IgG and kindergarten attendance. Response rates to measles, rubella, VZV, and mumps vaccination were 96%, 92.3%, 87.5%, 78.8%, respectively. The total cost of vaccination after IgG screening was less than vaccination without screening. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, participants' immunity to measles and VZV was low. Prevaccination serological screening was cost-effectiveness method for preventing measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella infections. We believe that administering booster measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine doses or developing a special MMR vaccination strategy for at-risk groups may prevent MMR outbreaks.