Quantitative assessment of liver fibrosis by digital image analysis reveals correlation with qualitative clinical fibrosis staging in liver transplant patients

Technologies for digitizing tissues provide important quantitative data for liver histopathology investigation. We aimed to assess liver fibrosis degree with quantitative morphometric measurements of histopathological sections utilizing digital image analysis (DIA) and to further investigate if a correlation with histopathologic scoring (Scheuer staging) exists. A retrospective study of patients with at least two post-liver transplant biopsies having a Scheuer stage of ≤ 2 at baseline were gathered. Portal tract fibrotic percentage (%) and size (μm(2)) were measured by DIA, while clinical fibrosis score was measured by the Scheuer system. Correlations between DIA measurements and Scheuer scores were computed by Spearman correlation analysis. Differences between mean levels of fibrosis (score, size, and percentage) at baseline versus second visit were computed by Student’s t-test. P values < 0.05 were considered significant. Of 22 patients who met the study criteria, 54 biopsies were included for analysis. Average levels ±standard error [S.E.] of portal tract fibrotic percentage (%) and size (μm(2)) progressed from 46.5 ± 3.6% at baseline to 61.8 ± 3.8% at the second visit (P = 0.005 by Student’s t-test), and from 28,075 ± 3,232 μm(2) at base line to 67,146 ± 10,639 μm(2) at the second visit (P = 0.002 by Student’s t-test), respectively. Average levels of Scheuer fibrosis scores progressed from 0.55±0.19 at baseline to 1.14±0.26 at the second visit (P = 0.02 by Student’s t-test). Portal tract fibrotic percentage (%) and portal tract fibrotic size were directly correlated with clinical Scheuer fibrosis stage, with Spearman correlation coefficient and P value computed as r = 0.70, P < 0.0001 and r = 0.41, P = 0.002, respectively. Digital quantitative assessment of portal triad size and fibrosis percentage demonstrates a strong correlation with visually assessed histologic stage of liver fibrosis and complements the standard assessment for allograft monitoring, suggesting the utility of future WSI analysis.