Confronto tra marcatori sierici di fibrosi e biopsia epatica

AUTORI

ABSTRACT

A comparison between serum biomarkers of fibrosis and liver biopsy

Hepatic fibrosis is a common response to prolonged liver injury and the liver biopsy is the standard method for assessing it. However, searching for alternative noninvasive approaches is important and immunoenzymatic assays using monoclonal antibodies have been recently developed to investigate the diagnostic utility of serum biomarkers. In this study, we explore the relationship between the grade of liver fibrosis and some biochemical parameters. We considered the following markers: collagen IV (CIV), coliglicin (CG), hyaluronic acid (HA), laminin (LN) and aminoterminal procollagen type III peptide (PIIIP). All markers were analyzed by new chemiluminescence immunoassays. We enrolled 36 patients with liver disease and available liver biopsy data. Furthermore, we compared the serum marker concentrations of patients with those of 16 healthy volunteers. Results showed a significant increase in concentrations of CIV, CG and PIIIP in patients with liver fibrosis. For CIV and PIIIP, a significant difference was also observed among groups with different fibrosis grade. In particular, a significant increase was evident in patients with early fibrosis when compared to patients without fibrosis.

BIBLIOGRAFIA