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: Artículo (Versión definitiva)

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