• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.539-546
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• 2019

Liver biopsy is invasive and it is a risk of complications. Nevertheless, liver biopsy is gold standard for predicting liver fibrosis. To compensate for these shortcomings, in this study, the liver fibrosis stage was divided using Fibroscan(R) in 200 chronic hepatitis C patients. And, the usefulness and cut-off values of fibrosis index based on four factors(FIB-4), AST to platelet ratio index(APRI) and AST/ALT ratio(AAR) calculated as serum tests were investigated by analyzing ROC curve. As a result, using FIB-4 and APRI rather than AAR is appropriate for evaluation of liver fibrosis. And using APRI to predict significant Fibrosis(F2) and FIB-4 is considered useful for predicting cirrhosis(F4). By applying the advantages of the serum based liver fibrosis marker, which are convenient and repeatable, liver fibrosis follow-up term can be reduced, and furthermore, the prevalence of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) can be reduced.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.19-25
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• 2013

Purpose: Childhood obesity is associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and it has become one of the most common causes of childhood chronic liver diseases which significant as a cause of liver related mortality and morbidity in children in the United States. The development of simpler and easier clinical indices for medical practice is needed to identify advanced hepatic fibrosis in childhood NAFLD instead of invasive method like liver biopsy. FibroScan and aspartate aminotransferase (AST)-to-platelet ratio index (APRI) have been proposed as a simple and noninvasive predictor to evaluate hepatic fibrosis in several liver diseases. APRI could be a good alternative to detect pathologic change in childhood NAFLD. The purpose of this study is to validate the efficacy of APRI for assessing hepatic fibrosis in childhood NAFLD based on FibroScan. Methods: This study included 23 children with NAFLD who underwent FibroScan. Clinical, laboratory and radiological evaluation including APRI was performed. To confirm the result of this study, 6 patients received liver biopsy. Results: Factors associated with hepatic fibrosis (stiffness measurement >5.9 kPa Fibroscan) were triglyceride, AST, alanine aminotransferase, platelet count, APRI and collagen IV. In multivariate analysis, APRI were correlated with hepatic fibrosis (>5.9 kPa). In receiver operating characteristics curve, APRI of meaningful fibrosis (cutoff value, 0.4669; area under the receiver operating characteristics, 0.875) presented sensitivity of 94%, specificity of 66%, positive predictive value of 94%, and negative predictive value of 64%. Conclusion: APRI might be a noninvasive, simple, and readily available method for medical practice to predict hepatic fibrosis of childhood NAFLD.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.115-122
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• 2008

Purpose : To evaluate the correlation between the radiological non-invasive hepatic fibrosis index (RNHFI), as determined by SPIO-enhanced MRI, and the laboratory non-invasive hepatic fibrosis index. Materials and Methods : Patients (99 total: 61 men and 38 women; mean age: 58 years) who underwent SPIO-enhanced MRI (1.5T) during 5 years included. These patients were subdivided into a liver cirrhosis group (LCG) and a non-liver cirrhosis group (non-LCG). Using PACS view, we measured the RNHFI (mean standard deviation of hepatic signal intensity (SD), noise-corrected coefficient of variation (CV)) of three ROIs in the liver parenchyma by SPIO-enhanced MRI. The laboratory non-invasive hepatic fibrosis index (AST-platelet ratio index (APRI)) of all patients was calculated from the laboratory data. We compared the RNHFI and APRI of LCG with those of non-LC group using Student's t-test. A bivariate correlation was performed to investigate the relationship between the RNHFI and APRI in the LCG. Results : For the LCG, mean values of SD and CV by SPIO-enhanced MRI were $10.3{\pm}3.7$ and $0.19{\pm}0.08$, respectively. For the non-LCG, mean values of SD and CV were $6.5{\pm}1.6$ and $0.08{\pm}0.05$, respectively. The mean APRI of the LCG and the non- LCG were $2.04{\pm}1.7$ and $0.32{\pm}0.32$, respectively. The RNHFI and APRI were significantly different between both groups (p<0.05). For the LCG, the bivariate correlation between SD and APRI revealed a statistically significant positive correlation (r=0.5, p<0.001). In both groups, there was no statistically significant correlation between CV and APRI. Conclusion: A measurement of SD can be a simple and useful method for the evaluation of hepatic fibrosis.

• Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.248-256
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• 2014

Purpose: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in children has become an important public health issue because of its high prevalence and severity. Several noninvasive methods for estimating NAFLD are under investigation. We aimed to evaluate the usefulness of serum ferritin as a biomarker of severity of pediatric NAFLD patients. Methods: A total of 64 NAFLD patient were enrolled from Severance Children's Hospital from March 2010 to February 2013. Serum ferritin levels, liver related laboratory tests, liver magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (2-dimensional [2D] proton density-fat fraction) and NAFLD severity markers were compared between obese group and overweight group. Correlation analyses were performed between serum ferritin and laboratory values including NAFLD severity markers. Results: In obese group, serum ferritin, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), total bilirubin, international normalized ratio (INR), MRI 2D proton density-fat fraction, aspartate aminotransferase (AST) to platelet ratio index (APRI) and fibrosis- 4 (FIB-4) (an index score calculated from platelet count, ALT, AST and age) were significantly higher than those of overweight group. NAFLD severity markers, APRI and FIB-4, and liver specific important laboratory values, AST, ALT, INR, cholesterol, triglyceride and low density lipoprotein show significant correlation with serum ferritin in NAFLD patients. Conclusion: Serum ferritin concentrations could be a candidate of useful severity marker in the pediatric NAFLD patients.