Noninvasive evaluation of significant liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B patients.

Background & aims: Chronic hepatitis B is still a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In recent years, there has been increasing research on inexpensive, noninvasive, reproducible methods for detecting fibrosis in the liver. In this study, we examined the efficacy of 15 different noninvasive fibrosis markers for predicting significant liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B patients.

Methods: Patients who underwent liver biopsy for chronic hepatitis B between 01.01.2010 and 01.01.2022 were retrospectively analysed. The study population was divided into two groups according to significant fibrosis (F≥3). Receiver operating characteristic analysis was performed to examine the diagnostic performance of these noninvasive fibrosis markers for the prediction of significant fibrosis. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used create a model which predicts significant fibrosis better than the individual markers.

Results: In total, 234 chronic hepatitis B patients were enrolled in this study. Among the 15 noninvasive fibrosis markers, King's score was found to have the biggest AUC in predicting significant fibrosis (F≥3). Furthermore, a model containing King's score, GUCI and GPR has the ability of prediction of significant fibrosis better than every individual marker (cut-off of the model >0,3356, p<0.0001).

Conclusion: According to our study results, the model containing King's score, GUCI and GPR can be used to predict significant liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B patients followed-up in countries with limited sources.