Value of FibroScan in the diagnosis of progressive liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C and related influencing factors

Objective To investigate the diagnostic efficacy of FibroScan in the diagnosis of progressive liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C and related influencing factors. Methods A total of 131 patients with chronic hepatitis C who attended Beijing YouAn Hospital, Capital Medical University from June 2015 to June 2018 were enrolled, and all of them underwent liver biopsy. Fibrosis stage was defined as F1 to F4 stages according to the METAVIR scoring system. General information was collected, and liver stiffness measurement ( LSM) , liver function test, routine blood test, and viral quantification were performed for all patients. Aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index ( APRI) and fibrosis-4 ( FIB-4) were calculated according to equations. The Kruskal-Wallis H test was used for comparison of non-normally distributed continuous between multiple groups, and the Wilcoxon rank-sum test was used for further comparison between two groups. A Spearman correlation analysis was performed. The receiver operating characteristic ( ROC) curve was used to analyze the value of three noninvasive methods in the diagnosis of liver fibrosis, and STATA was used to investigate whether there was a significant difference between the three methods. Results A total of 131 patients were enrolled, with 60 male patients ( 45. 80%) and 71 female patients ( 54. 20%) , and the mean age was 54. 00 ( 45. 00-58. 25) years. The median values of FibroScan, APRI, and FIB-4 were 7. 80 ( 5. 60-14. 30) kPa, 0. 63 ( 0. 37-1. 28) , and 2. 28 ( 1. 43-3. 60) , respectively. LSM gradually increased with the progression of liver fibrosis, and there was a significant difference between groups ( H = 47. 83, P < 0. 01) . For progressive liver fibrosis ( ≥F3 stage) , FibroScan had a larger area under the ROC curve ( AUC) than APRI and FIB-4, and further analysis based on STATA showed that there was a significant difference in AUC between FibroScan and APRI ( P < 0. 01) , while there was no significant difference in AUC between FibroScan and FIB-4 ( P = 0. 07) . FibroScan was correlated with alanine aminotransferase ( ALT) , aspartate aminotransferase ( AST) , gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase ( GGT) , and platelet count ( r = 0. 271, 0. 507, 0. 444, and-0. 263, all P < 0. 01) . The AUC of FibroScan was not signifi-cantly improved after adjustment for the above influencing factors. Conclusion FibroScan has good diagnostic efficacy in the diagnosis of progressive liver fibrosis in patients with hepatitis C, with better comprehensive diagnostic efficacy than APRI and FIB-4. The accuracy of FibroScan in diagnosis is not affected by the indicators such as ALT, AST, and GGT.