Substantial concordance between transient elastography and APRI and FIB-4 combination amongst hepatitis C inmates with non advanced liver fibrosis

OBJECTIVES: To establish concordance between transient elastography (TE) and non invasive markers (NIM) APRI and FIB-4 combination in cronic hepatitis C (HC) patients with non-advanced liver fibrosis (NALF). MATERIAL AND METHOD: Multi-centre retrospective study carried out at two different Barcelona Prisons HC inmates who had the TE done at 2019. We compared the ET vs. NIM results. The NALF consideration was ≤2 (≤12.5 Kilopascal (kPa) in TE). In the NALF cases was calculated de NIM APRI and FIB-4 and the kappa index agreement was established between TE and NIM. RESULTS: 107 cases were included, but only 82 were assessable. The average age was 42 (DS: ±3.2) years. The 96.5% were men, 51.2% spanish, 70.7% drug users and 39% HIV co infected. The 45.1% of those HC infected had genotipe 1. The 90.2% of the evaluated patients by TE the ALD was not detected. The kappa index was 0.78. 65 (79.3%) studied inmates got HC treatment. The 20.7% could not be treated because the evaluation was not completed. CONCLUSION: Most of the HC infected inmates have no ALD, and in such cases concordance between NIM/TE is substantial. The NIM can be used to shorten the evaluation time and prescribe the treatment faster, especially if the length of stay in prison is short and risk of transmission is high.