A promising non‑invasive index for predicting liver inflammation in chronic hepatitis B patients with alanine aminotransferase ≤2 upper limit of normal

Yu,Xue‑Ping; Wen,Xiao; Li,Jing; Zheng,Yi‑Juan; Long,Jian‑Fei; Zhao,Wei‑Dong; Jiang,Pei‑Xue; Wu,Jing‑Wen; Zhu,Bei‑Di; Jiang,Qi‑Rong; Yang,Fei‑Fei; Shen,Zhong‑Liang; Mao,Ri‑Cheng; Su,Zhi-Jun; Zhang,Ji-Ming

doi:10.3892/etm.2018.6751

A promising non‑invasive index for predicting liver inflammation in chronic hepatitis B patients with alanine aminotransferase ≤2 upper limit of normal

Authors:
- Xue‑Ping Yu
- Xiao Wen
- Jing Li
- Yi‑Juan Zheng
- Jian‑Fei Long
- Wei‑Dong Zhao
- Pei‑Xue Jiang
- Jing‑Wen Wu
- Bei‑Di Zhu
- Qi‑Rong Jiang
- Fei‑Fei Yang
- Zhong‑Liang Shen
- Ri‑Cheng Mao
- Zhi-Jun Su
- Ji-Ming Zhang
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Affiliations: Department of Infectious Diseases, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, P.R. China, Department of Infectious Diseases, The First Hospital of Quanzhou Affiliated to Fujian Medical University, Quanzhou, Fujian 362000, P.R. China, Department of Pharmacy, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, P.R. China, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Medicine College, Dali University, Dali, Yunnan 671000, P.R. China
Published online on: September 18, 2018 https://doi.org/10.3892/etm.2018.6751
Pages: 4393-4400
Copyright: © Yu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License.

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Abstract

Inexpensive and simple non‑invasive indexes for predicting liver inflammation are urgently required, but have been poorly studied in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with alanine transaminase (ALT) ≤2 times the upper limit of normal (ULN). A total of 356 CHB patients with ALT ≤2 ULN who presented at Huashan Hospital (n=181) and the First Hospital of Quanzhou (n=175) were enrolled and randomly divided into an experimental assessment cohort (n=238) and validation cohort (n=118) at a ratio of 2:1. Histological analysis of liver tissue was performed to determine the pathological stage according to the Scheuer scoring system. For the experimental assessment cohort, univariate and multivariate analysis identified aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and albumin (ALB) as independent predictors of liver necroinflammation [liver necroinflammation grade (G)≥2] in patients with ALT ≤2 ULN. Therefore, a novel index, the AST‑to‑ALB ratio (ATAR), was proposed, which had a better diagnostic performance [area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC)=0.721] than that of ALB (AUC=0.632; P=0.039 vs. ATAR) and AST (AUC=0.682; P=0.082 vs. ATAR). In the validation cohort, the AUC of ATAR (0.728) to identify patients with a G≥2 was slightly greater than that of AST (0.660; P=0.149 vs. ATAR) and ALB (0.672; P=0.282 vs. ATAR). Furthermore, a similar diagnostic superiority was also demonstrated in patients with ALT ≤1 ULN. Thus, ATAR may be a promising non‑invasive surrogate marker for liver necroinflammation CHB patients with ALT ≤2 ULN and thereby determine whether anti‑viral treatment should be initiated.

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