AimTo evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and clinical utility of the fibrosis index based on the four factors (FIB-4), aspartate aminotransferase -to-platelet ratio index (APRI), and aspartate aminotransferase–alanine aminotransferase ratio index (AAR) for predicting liver fibrosis in patients with HBV infection.MethodsFrom January 2006 to December 2010,a total of 1543 consecutive chronic hepatitis B(CHB) patients who underwent liver biopsies were enrolled. FIB-4,APRI, and AAR were calculated.The areas under the receiver-operating characteristic curves (AUROCs) were calculated to assess the diagnostic accuracy of these models.The AUROCs of these models were compared by DeLong’s test.For further comparisons in different studies,the AUROCs were adjusted to conduct Adjusted AUROCs(ADjAUROCs) according to the prevalence of fibrosis stages using the difference between advanced and nonadvanced fibrosis (DANA).ResultsFor prediction of significant fibrosis,severe fibrosis,and cirrhosis,the AUROCs of FIB-4 were 0.646(ADjAUROC 0.717),0.670(ADjAUROC 0.741), and 0.715(ADjAUROC 0.786) respectively;whereas it were 0.656(ADjAUROC 0.727),0.653(ADjAUROC 0.724) and 0.639(ADjAUROC 0.710) for APRI, 0.498(ADjAUROC 0.569),0.548(ADjAUROC 0.619) and 0.573(ADjAUROC 0.644) for AAR. The further comparisons demonstrated that there were no significant differences of AUROCs between FIB-4 and APRI in predicting significant and severe fibrosis(P > 0.05),while FIB-4 was superior to APRI in predicting cirrhosis(P < 0.001). Further subgroup analysis demonstrated that the diagnostic accuracy of FIB-4 and APRI in patients with normal alanine aminotransferase(ALT) were higher than that in patients with elevated ALT.ConclusionsThe results demonstrated that FIB-4 and APRI are useful for diagnosis of fibrosis. FIB-4 and APRI have similar diagnostic accuracy in predicting significant and severe fibrosis,while FIB-4 is superior to APRI in predicting cirrhosis. The clinical utility of FIB-4 and APRI for fibrosis need further external validation in a large population before it was used for prediction of fibrosis in patients with HBV infection.

The aim of the present study was to construct a cost-effective noninvasive diagnostic index for prediction of hepatic steatosis in patients with hepatitis B virus(HBV) infection. From January 2011 to January 2015, a total of 364 consecutive subjects who underwent liver biopsies were enrolled. The Receiver-operating characteristic(ROC) curves and Obuchowski measure were constructed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the new index. The AUROCs of steatosis index of patients with HBV infection (SIHBV) in predicting of steatosis were 0.929 (95% confidence interval:0.889–0.970, P < 0.05) in the model group and 0.855 (0.794–0.917, P < 0.05) in the validation group respectively. Comparisons of AUROCs demonstrated that SIHBV was significantly superior to Korean Score, fatty liver index (FLI), hepatic steatosis index (HSI), lipid accumulation product(LAP), and fatty liver disease (FLD) index for prediction of hepatic steatosis in model group and validation group(all P < 0.01). Especially for patients with hepatic steatosis percentage of 5.0–9.9% and 10.0–19.9%, SIHBV had a sensitivity of 63.6% and 79.2%, whereas it were 29.1% and 45.8% for Ultrasonography (all P < 0.05). In conclusion, as a cost-effective, simple, noninvasive, and readily available method, SIHBV may act as a massive screening tool before further examinations such as MRI, CT, transient elastography, or liver biopsy, especially for developing countries.

Our meta-analysis suggested that there is no association between APOE polymorphism and SAH risk for overall population. Due to several limitations in the present study, well-designed epidemiological studies with large sample size among different ethnicities should be performed in the future.

Preadmission DBP, multiple aneurysms, and aneurysms of the ACOA are associated with markedly increased volume of hemorrhage as evaluated by the revised Fisher grades. Thus, patients harboring an intracranial aneurysm having the above mentioned features should seek an early intervention in order to prevent the occurrence of aSAH.

The nomogram for hepatic steatosis has a better clinical diagnostic value for prediction of hepatic steatosis in patients with HBV infection. From the perspective of cost-effectiveness and clinical practice, it is worth considering the use of the nomogram as a mass screening tool before further liver biopsy or imaging examinations.