Diagnostic role of transient elastography in patients with autoimmune liver diseases:A systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND Noninvasive methods have been developed to detect fibrosis in many liver diseases due to the limits of liver biopsy.However,previous studies have focused primarily on chronic viral hepatitis and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.The diagnostic value of transient elastography for autoimmune liver diseases(AILDs)is worth studying.AIM To compare the diagnostic accuracy of imaging techniques with serum biomarkers of fibrosis in AILD.METHODS The PubMed,Cochrane Library and EMBASE databases were searched.Studies evaluating the efficacy of noninvasive methods in the diagnosis of AILDs[autoimmune hepatitis(AIH),primary biliary cholangitis(PBC)and primary sclerosing cholangitis(PSC)]were included.The summary area under the receiver operating characteristic curve(AUROC),diagnostic odds ratio,sensitivity and specificity were used to assess the accuracy of these noninvasive methods for staging fibrosis.RESULTS A total of 60 articles were included in this study,and the number of patients with AIH,PBC and PSC was 1594,3126 and 501,respectively.The summary AUROC of transient elastography in the diagnosis of significant fibrosis,advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis in patients with AIH were 0.84,0.88 and 0.90,respectively,while those in patients with PBC were 0.93,0.93 and 0.91,respectively.The AUROC of cirrhosis for patients with PSC was 0.95.However,other noninvasive indices(aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index,aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase ratio,fibrosis-4 index)had corresponding AUROCs less than 0.80.CONCLUSION Transient elastography exerts better diagnostic accuracy in AILD patients,especially in PBC patients.The appropriate cutoff values for staging advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis ranged from 9.6 to 10.7 and 14.4 to 16.9 KPa for PBC patients.

Entecavir add-on Peg-interferon therapy plays a positive role in reversing hepatic fibrosis in treatment-naive chronic hepatitis B patients: a prospective and randomized controlled trial

Background:The efficacy of entecavir(ETV)add-on peg-interferon therapy compared with ETV monotherapy in treatment-naive hepatitis B virus(HBV)patients remains controversial.We investigated whether adding peg-interferon to ongoing ETV treatment leads to a better curative effect or not.Methods:All patients have been recruited between August 2013 and January 2015 from the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center and Zhongshan Hospital(China).Eligible HBV patients(n=144)were randomly divided(1:1)to receive either ETV monotherapy(n=70)or peg-interferon add-on therapy from week 26 to 52(«=74).Patients were followed-up for at least 2 years.Indexes including hepatitis B surface antigen(HBsAg)and hepatitis B e antigen(HBeAg)seroconversion rate,sustained virologic response,transient elastography value,and histological scores were evaluated every 3 months until the end of the study.The rate of patients with HBsAg loss was defined as the primary endpoint criteria.Results:At week 26,no patient achieved HBsAg seroconversion in either group.At week 52,one patient in the monotherapy group was HBsAg-negative but there was none in the combination therapy group.The monotherapy group showed significantly better liver function recovery results than the combination therapy group.At week 78,one patient in the combination group had HBsAg seroconverted.At week 104,only three patients in the combination therapy group were HBsAg-negative compared with one patient in monotherapy.The mean alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase levels and transient elastography values decreased significantly compared with baseline.Both groups showed a favorable decrease in alpha-fetoprotein(monotherapy:4.5[2.8,7.1]vs.2.2[1.8,3.1]ng/mL,P<0.001;combination therapy:5.7[3.0,18.8]vs.3.2[2.0,4.3]ng/mL,P<0.001)and an improved result of liver biopsy examination scores.The combination group showed a better improvement in histology compared with the monotherapy group(mean transient elastography value 6.6[4.9,9.8]vs.7.8[5.4,11.1]kPa,P=0.028).But there was no significant difference in HBsAg conversion rate(1.8%[1/56]i^s.4.1%[3/73],P=0.809)and HBeAg conversion rate(12.5%[7/56]i/s.11.0%[8/73],P=0.787),as well as HBV-DNA,sustained virologic response(93.2%vs.98.5%,P=0.150)between the two groups.Conclusions:Both therapies supported liver function recovery and histology improvement.Combination therapy did not show better anti-viral efficacy in HBsAg or HBeAg seroconversion compared with monotherapy.However,combination therapy played a more positive role in reversing hepatic fibrosis compared with monotherapy.Trial registration:ClinicalTrials.gov:NCT02849132;https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02849132.