Effectiveness of fibrosis-4 versus aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index in evaluating liver fibrosis degree in patients with chronic HBV infection
- VernacularTitle:FIB-4和APRI评估慢性HBV感染者肝纤维化程度的效果比较
- Author:
Xiaoting LI
1
;
Bobin HU
1
;
Hongyu LIU
1
;
Chao JIN
1
;
Cailian CAI
1
;
Keshan WANG
1
;
Yanchun WEI
1
;
Jianning JIANG
1
;
Minghua SU
1
Author Information
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords: Hepatitis B Virus; Hepatic Fibrosis; Diagnosis
- From: Journal of Clinical Hepatology 2024;40(12):2424-2429
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
- Abstract: ObjectiveTo investigate the performance of fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) versus aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI) in predicting advanced liver fibrosis and disease progression in patients with chronic HBV infection. MethodsA total of 497 patients with chronic HBV infection who underwent liver biopsy in The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University from February 2013 to December 2022 were enrolled, among whom 404 were enrolled in a retrospective study and 75 were enrolled in a prospective study. Related indicators were collected, including demographic features (sex and age), biochemical indices (alanine aminotransferase [ALT] and aspartate aminotransferase [AST]), and platelet count, and FIB-4 and APRI were calculated. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison of non-normally distributed continuous data between two groups, and the Kruskal-Wallis H test was used for comparison between multiple groups; the chi-square test was used for comparison of categorical data between groups. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) was used to assess the ability of APRI and FIB-4 in evaluating liver fibrosis degree and disease progression in patients with chronic HBV infection. ResultsIn the retrospective analysis, compared with the FIB-4<2.67 group, the FIB-4≥2.67 group had a significantly higher proportion of the patients who were diagnosed with liver cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma (66.19% vs 47.54%, χ²=12.75, P<0.001). The medians of FIB-4 and APRI increased significantly with liver fibrosis degree from F0 to F4 (H=42.5 and 35.9, both P<0.001). As for the fibrosis stage of F0-F4, the median of FIB-4 was significantly higher than that of APRI in the patients with the same fibrosis stage (H=59.71, P<0.001). FIB-4 and APRI had a similar AUC for predicting stage F3 fibrosis (0.67 vs 0.65, Z=0.71, P=0.480), while FIB-4 had a higher AUC for predicting stage F4 fibrosis than APRI (0.72 vs 0.64, Z=10.50, P<0.001). In the prospective study cohort, FIB-4 and APRI showed an increasing trend over time in predicting disease progression (chronic hepatitis B to liver cirrhosis), with an AUC of 0.718 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.476 — 0.760) and 0.555 (95%CI: 0.408 — 0.703), respectively, and FIB-4 had a significantly higher accuracy than APRI in predicting disease progression (χ2=12.44, P<0.001). ConclusionFIB-4 and APRI can be used to evaluate advanced liver fibrosis (F3 and F4) and predict disease progression, and FIB-4 is superior to APRI in certain aspects.