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Hepatic venous pressure gradient correlates with advanced hepatic fibrosis: a retrospective review

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Abstract

Purpose

To determine if hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) correlates with advanced hepatic fibrosis, as a complement to transjugular (transvenous) core needle liver biopsy.

Materials and methods

After institutional review board approval, a retrospective review was conducted on 340 patients who underwent transjugular (transvenous) core needle liver biopsy with concurrent pressure measurements between 6/1/2007 and 6/1/2013. Spearman correlation and linear regression were performed. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was created and sensitivity, specificity, predictive values and likelihood ratios were calculated.

Results

Indications included hepatitis C, abnormal liver function tests, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, autoimmune hepatitis, and cirrhosis, among others. Biopsies showed stage 1 or 2 fibrosis in 15.6% each, stage 3 fibrosis in 21.6%, stage 4 fibrosis in 40.7%, and no fibrosis in 6.5%. Mean HVPG was 6.5 mm Hg (SD 5.0) with a range of 0–26 mm Hg. Spearman correlation coefficient for association between HVPG and fibrosis stage was 0.561 (p < 0.001). R2 on linear regression was 0.247 (p < 0.001). ROC curve for the prediction of stage 4 fibrosis had an area under the curve of 0.79 (95% CI 0.73–0.85). HVPG of ≥6 mm Hg had a sensitivity of 71.3%, specificity of 79.6%, positive predictive value of 70.5%, negative predictive value of 80.2%, positive likelihood ratio of 3.49 (95% CI 2.45–4.97) and negative likelihood ratio of 0.36 (95% CI 0.26–0.50) for diagnosis of stage 4 fibrosis.

Conclusions

HVPG correlates with stage 4 (advanced) hepatic fibrosis.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Aida Arapovic for her assistance with and coordination of institutional review board approval, as well as Richard Watts, PhD for his statistical advice. We also thank James deKay, MD for his assistance in obtaining pathology slides.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Plymouth Hospital, Plymouth, USA

    Jonathan K. Vincent

  2. Department of Radiology, Albany Medical Center, Albany, USA

    Christopher Stark

  3. Department of Radiology, Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, Burlington, USA

    Joseph T. Shields, Anant D. Bhave & Christopher S. Morris

  4. Patrick 1 Radiology, University of Vermont Medical Center, 111 Colchester Avenue, Burlington, VT, 05401, USA

    Christopher S. Morris

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  1. Jonathan K. Vincent
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Correspondence to Christopher S. Morris.

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No funding was received for this study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. For this type of study formal consent is not required.

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Statement of informed consent was not applicable since the manuscript does not contain any patient data.

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Vincent, J.K., Stark, C., Shields, J.T. et al. Hepatic venous pressure gradient correlates with advanced hepatic fibrosis: a retrospective review. Abdom Radiol 42, 2609–2614 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-017-1171-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-017-1171-y

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