Diagnostic Accuracy of the Enhanced Liver Fibrosis (ELF\u00ae) Score Using HCV-Infected Serum Samples Cryopreserved for up to 25 Years
Resumen: Introduction & Aims
Cryopreservation of serum samples is a standard procedure for biomedical research in tertiary centers. However, studies evaluating the long-term biological stability of direct liver fibrosis markers using cryopreserved samples are scarce.

Methods
We compared the stability of hyaluronic acid (HA), tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases (TIMP-1) and amino-terminal propeptide of type III procollagen (PIIINP) in 225 frozen serum samples of HCV-infected patients with a paired liver biopsy for up to 25 years (1990–2014). Moreover, we assessed the diagnostic accuracy (AUROC) of the Enhanced Liver Fibrosis (ELF®) score to identify significant fibrosis (F2-4) and its predictive capacity to identify clinical events during follow-up.

Results
Seventy-six patients (39,8%) had mild fibrosis (F0-1) and 115 (60,2%) significant fibrosis (F2-4). HA, PIIINP and TIMP-1 values remained stable during the period from 1995 to 2014 while those of 1990–94 were slightly higher. We did not find significant differences in the median ELF® values during the 20-year period from 1995–2014 in patients with mild (from 8,4 to 8,7) and significant fibrosis (from 9,9 to 10,9) (p = ns between periods and fibrosis stages). The AUROCs of ELF® to identify significant fibrosis were high in all the periods (from 0,85 to 0,91). The ELF® score showed a good predictive capability to identify clinical events during follow-up.

Conclusions
The biological stability of direct serum markers (HA, PIIINP and TIMP-1) using HCV-infected samples cryopreserved for 20 years is good. Therefore, the diagnostic accuracy of the ELF® score to identify significant fibrosis and clinical events during follow-up is very high.

Idioma: Inglés
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0164883
Año: 2016
Publicado en: PLoS ONE 11, 12 (2016), e0164883
ISSN: 1932-6203

Factor impacto JCR: 2.806 (2016)
Categ. JCR: MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES rank: 15 / 63 = 0.238 (2016) - Q1 - T1
Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 1.236 - Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous) (Q1) - Medicine (miscellaneous) (Q1) - Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (miscellaneous) (Q1)

Tipo y forma: Article (Published version)

Creative Commons You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.


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