A SIMPLE COLOURIMETRIC ASSAY FOR NONINVASIVE DIAGNOSIS OF LIVER FIBROSIS IN CHRONIC HEPATITIS B PATIENTS

EL-Shahat A. Toson*, Gamal E. Shiha, EL-Sherbiny H. EL-Sayed, Mohamed ELbasiony, Doaa A. Shoieb

ABSTRACT

Background: Chronic hepatitis B virus run the risk of developing liver fibrosis, cirrhosis and in later life hepatocellular carcinoma. Aim: The aim is to test the diagnostic power of N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) in assessing liver fibrosis and its ability to improve those of AAR, FIB4 and GUCI scores in the previous patients. Methods: Blood samples for complete blood count and serum for N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAG) assays, liver function tests, HBV DNA and HBV markers evaluation were taken (n=71, F0 - F4 according to liver stiffness calculated by transient elastography). The numerical values of the six scores were quantized and correlated with that of NAG. Results: NAG can efficiently differentiate patients with non-significant (F0, F1) from those with significant fibrosis (F2 –F4); sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV) and negative predictive value (NPV) of 81, 91, 90, 81, respectively with AUC of 0.900. The additions of the results of NAG to those of the previous scores greatly enhance their AUCs and their diagnostic power in the majority of cases. Conclusions: NAG, itself, cannot only help in assessing hepatic fibrosis but can also enhance the diagnostic power of the tested scores to discriminate the fibrotic stages of HBV chronically infected Egyptian patients.

Keywords: N-acetyl-?-D-glucosaminidase, Hepatitis B Virus, Liver fibrosis, transient elastography and non-invasive scores.