Non invasive assessment of liver fibrosis in chronic hemodialysis patients with viral hepatitis C

Abstract

The liver biopsy has long been the "gold standard" for assessing liver fibrosis in patients with hepatitis C. It’s an invasive procedure which is associated with an elevated bleeding, especially in chronic  hemodialysis patients. Main goal is to assess liver fibrosis in chronic hemodialysis with HCV by Fibroscan and by biological scores (APRI, Forns and Fib-4), and to measure the correlation between these tests.  Cross-sectional study including all chronic hemodialysis patients with hepatitis C virus, in two public  hemodialysis centers of Fez. All patients were evaluated for liver fibrosis using noninvasive methods  (FibroScan and laboratory tests). Subsequently, the correlation between different tests has been  measured. 95 chronic hemodialysis were studied, twenty nine patients (30.5%) with chronic hepatitis C. The average age was 52.38 ± 16.8 years. Nine liver fibrosis cases have been concluded by forns score. Fibroscan has objectified significant fibrosis in 6 cases. On the other side APRI has objectified sgnifivant fibrosis only in 3 cases. The Fib-4 showed severe fibrosis in five cases. The results have been most consistent between APRI and Fib-4, followed by Fibroscan and Forns, then APRI and FibroScan.

Key words: APRI, fib4, fibroscan, forns, hepatitis C virus, liver fibrosis, chronic hemodialysis