Abstract
Noninvasive serum markers for assessment of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients have not been well-studied. The present study was to evaluate the predictive value of serum interferon gamma-inducible protein-10 (IP-10/CXCL10) and the interferon (IFN)-γ/interleukin (IL)-4 ratio for liver fibrosis progression in CHB patients. A total of 180 CHB patients were categorized into four groups: no fibrosis, mild fibrosis, moderate fibrosis, and severe fibrosis. Serum and intrahepatic levels of IP-10, IFN-γ, and IL-4 were examined, from which the IFN-γ/IL-4 ratio was calculated. We found that the serum IP-10 levels were positively correlated with the severity of liver fibrosis, whereas the IFN-γ/IL-4 ratio was negatively associated with the progression of hepatic fibrosis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the serum IP-10 was an independent predictor for significant fibrosis. For predicting significant fibrosis, the IP-10 cut-off value of 300 ng/mL had a sensitivity of 92.7% and a specificity of 68.6%. When the IP-10 level was combined with the IFN-γ/IL-4 ratio, the specificity and positive predictive value were 93.8% and 94.6%, respectively; thus, the discriminatory ability was much improved. In conclusion, the serum IP-10 level and the IFN-γ/IL-4 ratio have great potential to predict significant fibrosis among CHB patients.