Diagnostic accuracy of Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse (ARFI) and wisteria floribunda agglutinin-positive mac-2-binding protein (WFA+-M2BP) in patients with chronic liver disease

Abstract

Background: The present study assessed and compared the diagnostic accuracy of elastography (acoustic radiation force impulse, ARFI) with that of Wisteria floribunda agglutinin-positive Mac-2-binding protein (WFA+-M2BP) for estimating the stage of hepatic fibrosis in chronic liver disease patients. Material/Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study enrolled 70 chronic liver disease patients who underwent hepatectomy for hepatic tumors. ARFI and WFA+-M2BP serum level, underlying liver disease, and laboratory data for all patients were recorded. The stage of fibrosis was determined from a surgical specimen. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves (AUC) was measured to compare the diagnostic accuracy. Results: The ARFI and serum WFA+-M2BP levels had good performances for detecting severe fibrosis (3F3). The AUC in characterization of fibrosis stage 3F3 was 0.79 for ARFI and 0.71 for serum WFA+-M2BP levels. When comparing the diagnostic performances between ARFI and serum WFA+-M2BP levels for the severity of fibrosis stage, no significant differences were found. Then all patients were divided into 2 subgroups, the AUC for serum WFA+-M2BP levels was higher in the hepatitis C virus (HCV) subgroup than in the hepatitis B virus (HBV) subgroup when characterizing fibrosis stages 3F3. Conclusions: WFA+-M2BP is an accurate biomarker and is as good as ARFI in detecting severe fibrosis for chronic liver disease patients.