Measuring plasma osteopontin level alone has no advantage over serum alpha fetoprotein in patients with focal hepatic lesions due to chronic liver disease.

Background and study aim: ELISA can determine serum Interleukin (IL)-18 level. It is a sensitive, simple and rapid test, thus help to study changes of serum IL-18 levels in chronic HCV related liver diseases during different stages. The objective of this study was to study serum IL-18 levels in chronic HCV related liver diseases. Patients and methods: Sera from 60 patients with HCV related chronic liver diseases at various stages of HCV infection (chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and complications) and sera of 10 normal controls were subjected to measurements of serum IL-18 level by ELISA assay. Results: There were highly significant increase in the mean values of serum IL-18 in chronic HCV related liver cirrhosis, non complicated and complicated patients in comparison to chronic active hepatitis C patients and healthy subjects and highly significant increase in the mean values of serum IL-18 in complicated patients in comparison to non complicated patients. There was highly significant increase in the mean values of serum IL-18 in decompensated liver cirrhosis patients when compared to compensated patients. Conclusion: Serum IL-18 level shows highly positive significant correlation with severity of liver dysfunction in HCV related liver cirrhosis.