Routine blood tests to predict liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C

AIM: To verify the usefulness of FibroQ for predicting fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C, compared with other noninvasive tests. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included 237 consecutive patients with chronic hepatits C who had undergone percutaneous liver biopsy before treatment. FibroQ, aspartate aminotransferase (AST)/alanine aminotransgerase ratio (AAR), AST to platelet ratio index, cirrhosis discriminant score, age-platelet index (API), Pohl score, FIB-4 index, and Lok's model were calculated and compared. RESULTS: FibroQ, FIB-4, AAR, API and Lok's model results increased significantly as fibrosis advanced (analysis of variance test: P < 0.001). FibroQ trended to be superior in predicting significant fibrosis score in chronic hepatitis C compared with other noninvasive tests. CONCLUSION: FibroQ is a simple and useful test for predicting significant fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C. (C) 2012 Baishideng. All rights reserved.