Evaluation of Coagulation, Fibrinolysis and Endothelial Biomarkers in Cirrhotic Patients With or Without Portal Venous Thrombosis

To evaluate variations in coagulation, fibrinolysis and endothelial marker expression in cirrhotic patients and to explore their clinical value and predictive performance in cirrhotic patients with or without portal vein thrombosis (PVT), we performed a case-control study with 175 cirrhotic patients and 50 healthy individuals. 99 patients had PVT and another 76 patients did not. All participants were evaluated for plasma levels of conventional hemostatic markers. Thrombin-antithrombin complex (TAT), plasmin-α2-plasmin inhibitor complex (PIC), thrombomodulin (TM), tissue plasminogen activator inhibitor complex (t-PAIC), von Willebrand factor antigen (vWF: Ag) and coagulation factor Ⅷ (FⅧ: c) were also assessed and the ratio of TAT/t-PAIC was calculated. We analyzed differences in these biomarkers among the three groups and constructed receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Patients with PVT exhibited significantly higher TAT and TAT/t-PAIC than cirrhotic patients without PVT (both P < 0.001). Areas under the curve (AUC) of ROC analyses for TAT and TAT/t-PAIC were 0.68 and 0.66, the cut-off levels were 1.55 ng/ml and 0.46, with sensitivities and specificities of 78.79% and 51.32% regarding TAT, 39.8% and 90.79% regarding TAT/t-PAIC. Levels of FⅧ: c and vWF: Ag in patients with PVT were significantly lower than those without PVT (p = 0.026 and p = 0.027, respectively). The AUC(ROC), cut-off level, sensitivity and specificity of FⅧ: c were 0.64, 111.1%, 66.67% and 60%, respectively. For vWF: Ag they were 0.61, 429%, 89.66% and 38.71%, respectively. Cirrhotic patients have disorders of coagulation, fibrinolysis and the endothelial system. TAT, TAT/t-PAIC, FⅧ: c and vWF: Ag can be used as potential biomarkers for predicting PVT in cirrhotic patients.