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Multicenter Study
. 2021 May;56(5):470-478.
doi: 10.1007/s00535-021-01782-3. Epub 2021 Mar 31.

Applicability of APRI and FIB-4 as a transition indicator of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic viral hepatitis

Jun Itakura  1 , Masayuki Kurosaki  1 , Hiroko Setoyama  2 , Tetsuro Simakami  3 , Noriko Oza  4 , Masaaki Korenaga  5 , Motohiko Tanaka  6 , Takuji Torimura  7 , Naoya Sakamoto  8 , Nobuyuki Enomoto  9 , Yoshiyuki Ueno  10 , Norifumi Kawada  11 , Shuichi Kaneko  3 , Shuhei Nishiguchi  12 , Kazuaki Chayama  13 , Junko Tanaka  14 , Namiki Izumi  1 , Tatsuya Kanto  15
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Applicability of APRI and FIB-4 as a transition indicator of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic viral hepatitis

Jun Itakura et al. J Gastroenterol. 2021 May.

Abstract

Background and aims: The usefulness of APRI or FIB-4 is well established as a non-invasive liver fibrosis marker at a point of diagnosis in patients with chronic liver disease. However, their applicability for the monitoring of progression of liver fibrosis over time is yet to be determined. We aimed to clarify the feasibility of APRI and FIB-4 for the longitudinal evaluation of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B and C.

Methods: This is a multi-center retrospective and prospective cohort study, enrolling 1029 patients with HCV and 384 patients with HBV who were histologically diagnosed by liver biopsy. The observation period of retrospective and prospective study was 14 and 12 years, respectively. The APRI and FIB-4 were traced back in cases of histologically diagnosed cirrhosis, and those were prospectively analyzed after biopsy in cases diagnosed as F3 of METAVIR score, respectively.

Results: The averaged APRI and FIB-4 exhibited time-dependent increase in the retrospective study of hepatitis C patients (increase by 0.09/year in APRI and 0.29/year in FIB-4). In the prospective study of untreated hepatitis C patients, such increases were 0.14/year in APRI and 0.40/year in FIB-4, respectively. Neither the average of APRI nor FIB-4 showed a specific tendency with hepatitis B patients and treatment-experienced hepatitis C patients.

Conclusion: The APRI and FIB-4 may serve as a transition indicator of liver fibrosis in anti-viral treatment-naïve patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Keywords: APRI; FIB-4; HBV; HCV; Longitudinal change.

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References

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