A quantitative evaluation of liver fibrosis on hepatitis C

• Published in: Kanzo Vol. 38; no. 6; pp. 349 - 354
• Main Authors: WAKAHAMA, Osamu, MATSUNAGA, Takashi, NISHIKAWA, Shuji, HIGUCHI, Akifumi, KOIKE, Fumiyuki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: The Japan Society of Hepatology 1997
• ISSN: 0451-4203; 1881-3593
• DOI: 10.2957/kanzo.38.349

To evaluate a degree of liver fibrosis of chronic liver disease quantitatively, we applied the fibrotic ratio (%) that was obtained by calculating fibrotic areas of bioptic liver specimens collected from 102 hepatitis C patients by using computer graphics softwares. The fibrotic ratio increased significantly in accordance with the deterioration of chronic liver disease; mean fibrotic ratios of chronic hepatitis (F0, F1, F2, F3: Inuyama 1995), compensate LC, decompensated LC and mortal cases from liver failure were about 0.5%, 3%, 7%, 11%, 17%, 29% and 62% respectively. Mean fibrotic ratios of the patients with splenomegaly, HCC, varices, ascites and hepatic encephalopathy were 24%, 32%, 35%, 38% and 40% respectively. Next we examined the relationships between fibrotic ratio and biochemical liver function tests. The fibrotic ratio correlated not only with fibrotic markers; type 4 collagen 7s and platelet, but also with liver functional markers; prothrombin time, total bilirubin, albumin, ICG R15 and so on. Moreover, the multivariate analysis showed that the fibrotic ratio could be predicted fairly well from the combination of four factors; prothrombin time, total bilirubin, albumin and ICG R15.