BACKGROUND:

Determining the stage of fibrosis by liver biopsy is important in managing patients with hepatitis C virus infection. We investigated the predictive value of the proprietary FibroTest score to accurately identify significant fibrosis in Australian hepatitis C patients.

METHODS:

Serum obtained from 125 confirmed hepatitis C patients before antiviral therapy was analyzed for haptoglobin, alpha(2)-macroglobulin, apolipoprotein A1, bilirubin, and gamma-glutamyltransferase activity, and the FibroTest score was computed. Liver fibrosis pathology was staged according to a defined system on a scale of F0 to F4. We used predictive values and a ROC curve to assess the accuracy of FibroTest scores.

RESULTS:

The prevalence of significant fibrosis defined by liver biopsy was 0.38. The most useful single test for predicting significant fibrosis was serum alpha(2)-macroglobulin (cutoff value, 2.52 g/L; sensitivity, 75%; specificity, 67%). The negative predictive value of a FibroTest score <0.1 was 85%, and the positive predictive value of a score >0.6 was 78%. Although 33 of the 125 patients had FibroTest scores <0.1 and were therefore deemed unlikely to have fibrosis, 6 (18%) had significant fibrosis. Conversely, of the 24 patients with scores >0.6 who were likely to have significant fibrosis, 5 (21%) had mild fibrosis. Of the 125 patients in the cohort, 57 (46%) could have avoided liver biopsy, but discrepant results were recorded in 11 of those 57 (19%).

CONCLUSION:

The FibroTest score could not accurately predict the presence or absence of significant liver fibrosis.