Is there an association between commonly employed biomarkers of liver fibrosis and liver stiffness in the general population?

Abstract

Introduction and objectives: Surrogate biomarkers of liver fibrosis developed in tertiary care are increasingly used in general populations. We evaluated the association between liver stiffness (LS) and five continuous (AST/ALT, APRI, Forns Index, FIB-4, GGT) and two discrete biomarkers (BARD, BAAT) in a general population.

Patients and methods: 636 (29%) of the 2159 citizens of the Bagnacavallo Study had LS measured by transient elastography. Using linear regression with univariate multiple imputation, we evaluated the association of LS with the above biomarkers in the total sample of 2159 citizens.

Results: The mean change of LS between the 5^th and 9^5th internal percentile of any continuous biomarker was ≤1kPa. The mean change of LS between scores 0 and 3 of BARD and scores 0 and ≥3 of BAAT was >1kPa but of doubtful clinical relevance.

Conclusion: We found a modest association between LS and seven biomarkers of liver fibrosis in a general population.

Keywords: Biomarkers; Chronic liver disease; Cross-sectional study; Elasticity imaging technique; Epidemiology; Liver fibrosis.