The role of the non-invasive serum marker FibroTest–ActiTest in the prediction of histological stage of fibrosis and activity in children with naïve chronic hepatitis B infection

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate whether the non-invasive serum marker FibroTest–ActiTest (FT–AT) reliably predicts the histological stage of fibrosis and/or activity, and decreases the need for a liver biopsy. Twenty-five children with naïve chronic hepatitis B were analyzed for haptoglobin, α2-macroglobulin, apolipoprotein A1, bilirubin, γ-glutamyl transferase, and alanine aminotransferase activity, and the FT–AT scores were computed. FT–AT scores were compared with histological data. FT predicted insignificant fibrosis in 14/23 (61%) patients at a cut-off level of 0.31. Nine patients (36%) had significant histological fibrosis, but none were predicted by FT. There was no correlation between FT scores and histological stage of fibrosis (r: −0.221, p = 0.228). All 4 patients with significant histological activity had corresponding significant activity in AT (100%). Fifteen out of the 19 patients (78.9%) with significant activity in AT had insignificant histological activity. At the cut-off level of 0.36, AT predicted insignificant activity in all 6 patients (100%). There was no correlation between AT scores and histological activity (r: 0.245, p = 0.237). According to histological data, 12 patients were candidates for treatment, but FT–AT did not predict 3 of them (25%). FT–AT does not appear ready for use in detecting either the stage of fibrosis or activity in children with chronic hepatitis B.

Acknowledgement

The study was supported by Schering-Plough Corporation, Turkey.

Declaration of interest: There is no conflict of interest.