BioMed Research International

Research Article

Pentraxin 3 Detects Clinically Significant Fibrosis in Patients with Chronic Viral Hepatitis C

Table 1

Clinical and biochemical characteristics of patients with chronic viral hepatitis C (HCV) and healthy controls.


	HCV patients	Healthy controls

(n)	138	40
Male Female, n (%)	(83:55), (60.14%: 39.86%)	(18:22), (45%:55%)
Age (years)	55 (22-79)	46 (18-67)
Etiology of hepatitis, (n) HCV-Ab(+)	138	-
HCV genotype, n (%)
1b	100 (72.5%)	-
3a	29 (21.0%)	-
4c/4d	9 (6.5%)	-
HCV viral load, mean x 10⁵ copies/mL	2.84 (0.019 -7.13)	-
MELD score	7.6 (6.5-8.1)	-
BMI (kg/m²)	22.2 ±2.4	21.7 ±1.9
ALT (IU/L)	64 (13-278)	24.5 (10-38)
AST (IU/L)	50 (17-242)	27.5 (12-35)
ALP (IU/L)	82 (38-220)	65 (52-90)
GGT (IU/L)	53 (12-352)	26 (16-37)
Bilirubin (mg/dL)	0.83 (0.31-4.0)	0.76 (0.25-1.50)
INR (0.8-1.1)	1.05 (0.92-2.38)	1.1 (0.9-1.24)
Albumin (g/dL)	3.9 (2.41-4.72)	4.25 (3.2-5.0)
Cholesterol (mg/dL)	154.2 (140.3-231.0)	159.5 (138.0-213.0)
HDL-cholesterol (mg/dL)	41.88 (32.8-56.1)	40.58 (33.1-58.9)
Triglycerides (mg/dL)	140.5 (111.2-173.5)	118.8 (98.4-152.7)
Leucocytes (x 10⁹/L)	6.24 (3.90-12.5)	5.80 (3.90-8.90)
Platelets (x 10⁹/L)	188.5 (121.0-360.0)	190 (123.0-216.0)
Fibrosis markers
PTX3 (ng/mL)	4.80 (1.01-12.7)	0.96 (0.2-1.96)
HA (ng/mL)	113.5 (7.9-826.9)	73.1 (56.4-81.8)
TGF- β₁ (ng/mL)	8.0 (2.12-31.5)	2.77 (1.87-4.67)
APRI index	0.69 (0.20-12.1)	0.38 (0.16-0.47)
FIB-4 score	3.43 (0.28-30.6)	1.37 (0.38-2.54)
AST/ALT ratio	0.91 (0.45-2.70)	1.00 (0.70-2.70)
GPR ratio	0.31 (0.04-6.62)	0.13 (0.09-0.23)
LSM (kPa)	11.1±4.3	-
Histological findings
Fibrosis stage, n (%) F 0/ 1 / 2/ 3 / 4	24 (17.4%)/ 25 (18.1 %)/ 39 (28.3 %)/ 21 (15.2 %)/ 29 (21 %)
Liver inflammation activity stage, n (%) A 0 -1 / 2 / 3	38 (27.5%)/ 52 (37.7%)/ 48 (34.8%)

Continuous variables are expressed as median (interquartile range, IQR) or mean ± standard deviation and categorical variables as number (percentage). Significance between groups.
< 0.05, < 0.01, and < 0.001 versus healthy controls. APRI, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) to platelet index; GPR, gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase to platelet ratio; HA, hyaluronic acid; LSM, liver stiffness measurement; TGF-β₁, transforming growth factor‐β₁.