Abstract
Accurate quantification of the severity of liver fibrosis provides important prognostic information among patients with chronic liver disease and thus influences management. Histopathological staging of liver biopsy is considered the gold standard for assessment of liver fibrosis but is limited by its invasive nature, high cost, and sampling error. Hepascore is a serum model consisting of hyaluronic acid, bilirubin, alpha2-macroglobulin, gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, age, and sex, originally developed to predict the severity of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C. Hepascore has been widely validated in chronic hepatitis C, chronic hepatitis B, alcoholic and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and other types of chronic liver disorders. Validation studies have confirmed good to excellent accuracy to predict or exclude different levels of hepatic fibrosis including cirrhosis. In addition, Hepascore is dynamic over time and has been demonstrated to predict adverse clinical outcomes in longitudinal cohorts of chronic hepatitis C and alcoholic liver disease patients. Thus, Hepascore is a valuable clinical tool to stage liver fibrosis and determine prognosis, need for treatment, screening, and surveillance strategies in patients with chronic liver disease.
Abbreviations
- ALT:
-
Alanine aminotransferase
- AST:
-
Aspartate aminotransferase
- AUC:
-
Area under ROC curves
- CFLD:
-
Cystic fibrosis liver disease
- CI:
-
Confidence interval
- CV:
-
Coefficients of variation
- GGT:
-
Gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase
- HA:
-
Hyaluronic acid
- HCC:
-
Hepatocellular carcinoma
- HCV:
-
Hepatitis C virus
- HH:
-
Hereditary hemochromatosis
- MMP-2:
-
Matrix metalloproteinase-2
- NAFLD:
-
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
- NPV:
-
Negative predictive value
- PPV:
-
Positive predictive value
- SLFG:
-
Shanghai Liver Fibrosis Group’s index
- TIMP-1:
-
Tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase-1
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Huang, Y., Jeffrey, G.P., Adams, L.A. (2016). Hepascore and Its Application to Liver Disease. In: Preedy, V. (eds) Biomarkers in Liver Disease. Biomarkers in Disease: Methods, Discoveries and Applications. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7742-2_29-1
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