Uses of Inflammatory Markers for Differentiation of Intrahepatic Mass-Forming Cholangiocarcinoma from Liver Abscess: Case-Control Study

Background: Pyogenic liver abscess (LA) is difficult to distinguish from intrahepatic mass-forming cholangiocarcinoma (IMCC) in the emergency department (ED). We evaluated the predictive ability of white blood cells (WBC) and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and delta neutrophil index (DNI) in LA and IMCC in the ED. Methods: Forty patients with IMCC between January 2011 and December 2018 were included in this study. For each patient with IMCC, two control patients with LA were enrolled based on matching age and sex,—i.e., 80 patients with LA. Results: Inflammatory markers, including WBC, PLR, NLR, DNI, and CRP were significantly higher in the LA group than in the IMCC group. For both groups, the area under the curve (AUC) of the initial CRP value was significantly higher (AUC: 0.909) than that of the initial serum WBC count, PLR, and DNI levels. On multivariable logistic regression analysis with inflammatory markers, serum CRP (odds ratio, 1.290; 95% confidence interval, 1.148–1.449, p < 0.001) was the only significant predictor for differentiation between the LA and IMCC groups. Conclusion: Serum CRP may be a potential inflammatory marker to differentiate IMCC from LA in the ED.