Elevation of the glycated albumin to glycated hemoglobin ratio during the progression of hepatitis C virus related liver fibrosis

摘要

AIM: To analyze the relationship between the glycated albumin (GA) to glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) ratio and the histological grading of liver fibrosis.METHODS: The study retrospectively included consecutive hepatitis C virus positive chronic liver disease patients (n = 142) who had undergone percutaneous liver biopsy between January 2008 and March 2010 at our institution. The ratios of GA/HbA1c were calculated in all patients to investigate the relationship with the degree of the liver fibrosis. The values of the aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI), an excellent marker for the evaluation of liver fibrosis, were also calculated. In addition, we combined the ratio of GA/HbA1c and the APRI in order to improve our ability to detect the presence of significant liver fibrosis. RESULTS: Sixty-one (43%) patients had either no fibrosis or minimal fibrosis (METAVIR score: F0-F1), while 25 (17%) had intermediate fibrosis (F2). Fifty-six (39%) patients had severe fibrosis (F3-F4) and 27 of them had cirrhosis (F4). The mean values of the GA/HbA1c increased with the progression of the fibrosis (F0-1: 2.83 ± 0.24, F2: 2.85 ± 0.24, F3: 2.92 ± 0.35, F4: 3.14 ± 0.54). There was a significant dif- ference between the F0-F1 vs F4, F2 vs F4, and F3 vs F4 groups (P 3.0) was as follows: its sensitivity and specificity for the detection of liver cirrhosis (F4) were 59.3% and 70.4%, respectively and its sensitivity and specificity for the detection of severe liver fibrosis (F3-F4) were 50.0% and 74.4%,respectively. With regard to the detection of significant fibrosis (F2-F4), its sensitivity was 44.4% and its specificity was 77.0%. Although even the excellent marker APRI shows low sensitivity (25.9%) for distinguishing patients with or without significant fibrosis, the combination of the APRI and GA/HbA1c ratio increased the sensitivity up to 42.0%, with only a modest decrease in the specificity (from 90.2% to 83.6%). CONCLUSION: The GA/HbA1c ratio increased in line with the histological severity of liver fibrosis, thus suggesting that this ratio is useful as a supportive index of liver fibrosis.