Diagnosis of significant hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B: another simple, effective and inexpensive method

Early diagnosis of liver fibrosis remains a challenge. The aim of this study was to compare the performance of the GPR, APRI and FIB-4 scores in the diagnosis of significant fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B. This was a 6-month cross-sectional study. Patients were aged 18 and over, had a FibroScan® and had venous blood samples taken. 133 patients were included. The mean FibroScan® value was 5.33 ± 0.47 kPa, with 26.32% showing significant fibrosis (>7.2 kPa). The GPR score had a sensitivity of 80% compared with 48.57% and 51.42% respectively for the APRI and FIB-4 scores. However, its specificity was lower (51.02%) compared with the APRI (77.55%) and FIB-4 (81.63%) scores. The area the ROC curve of the GPR score (0.760) was higher than that of the APRI (0.712) and FIB-4 (0.724) scores in predicting significant fibrosis (p < 0.05). The GPR score is more accurate for assessing liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B in sub-Saharan Africa.