Serum NX-DCP as a New Noninvasive Model to Predict Significant Liver Fibrosis in Chronic Hepatitis C

BACKGROUND: Finding a noninvasive method to predict liver fibrosis using inexpensive and easy-to-use markers is important. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to clarify whether NX-des-γ-carboxyprothrombin (NX-DCP) could become a new noninvasive model to predict liver fibrosis in hepatitis C virus (HCV) related liver disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We performed a prospective cohort study on a consecutive group of 101 patients who underwent liver biopsy for HCV-related liver disease at Kobe University Hospital. Laboratory measurements were performed on the same day as the biopsy. Factors associated with significant fibrosis (F3-4) were assessed by multivariate analyses. A comparison of predictive ability between multivariate factors and abovementioned noninvasive models was also performed. RESULTS: Increase in serum NX-DCP was significantly related to increase in fibrosis stage (P = 0.006). Moreover, NX-DCP was a multivariate factor associated with the presence of significant fibrosis F 3-4 (median 21 of F0-2 group vs. median 22 of F3-4 group with P = 0.002). The AUC of NX-DCP showed no significant differences compared with those of the AST-to-platelet ratio index (APRI), modified-APRI, the Göteborg University Cirrhosis Index (GUCI), the Lok index, the Hui score, cirrhosis discriminating score (CDS) and the Pohl score (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: NX-DCP correlated positively with fibrosis stage and could discriminate well between HCV-related patients with or without significant fibrosis. Moreover, NX-DCP had a similar predictive ability to the abovementioned models, and thereby could be a new noninvasive prediction tool for fibrosis.