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Evaluation of soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (sST2) as serum marker for liver fibrosis

Authors :
Florian F. Hildenbrand
Barbara Illi
Stefanie von Felten
Jacqueline Bachofner
Joanna Gawinecka
Arnold von Eckardstein
Beat Müllhaupt
Joachim C. Mertens
Sena Blümel
Source :
BMC Gastroenterology, Vol 24, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2024)
Publication Year :
2024
Publisher :
BMC, 2024.

Abstract

Abstract Background & aims With the increase in patients at risk of advanced liver disease due to the obesity epidemic, there will be a need for simple screening tools for advanced liver fibrosis. Soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (sST2) is a serum biomarker for fibrotic processes. The aim of this study was to evaluate sST2 as marker for liver fibrosis in patients successfully treated for chronic hepatitis C. Methods 424 patients from the Swiss Hepatitis C Cohort Study were screened for inclusion in this post-hoc cohort study. Inclusion criteria were sustained virological response (SVR), available elastography (VCTE) and serum samples for biomarker analysis before and after treatment. For the validation of sST2, values were compared to VCTE, FIB-4 and APRI using Spearman’s correlation and AUROC analyses. Results Data of 164 subjects were finally analyzed. Median sST2 values slightly increased with VCTE-derived fibrosis stages and remained stable after reaching SVR within the respective fibrosis stage, suggesting that sST2 is not influenced by liver inflammation. However, correlation of sST2 pre- and post-treatment with VCTE was fair (Spearman’s rho = 0.39 and rho = 0.36). The area under the curve (AUROC) for sST2 in detecting VCTE-defined F4 fibrosis (vs. F0-F3) before therapy was 0.74 (95%CI 0.65–0.83), and 0.67(95%CI 0.56–0.78) for the discrimination of F3/F4 fibrosis vs. F0-F2. Adding sST2 to either APRI or FIB-4, respectively, increased diagnostic performance of both tests. Conclusions sST2 can potentially identify patients with advanced fibrosis as a single serum marker and in combination with APRI and FIB-4.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1471230X
Volume :
24
Issue :
1
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
BMC Gastroenterology
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.1f4c8cc6076b4a0e814ca5c7d875fdd2
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12876-023-03116-4