Diagnostic role of serum Golgi protein 73 as a biomarker for the assessment of significant hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B infection

Abstract Background The definitive feature of a progressive chronic HBV infection is significant fibrosis. Accurately identifying severe fibrosis is so crucial for making decisions about the next step of therapeutic treatment. The most important non-invasive way for assessing severe hepatic fibrosis with reducing the need for invasive liver biopsy are liver stiffness (LS), which is measured by transient elastography (TE), and indirect serum biomarkers as APRI score and FIB-4 Index. Serum Golgi protein 73 (GP73) is a newly developed biomarker of fibrosis in chronic liver diseases. Serum GP73 levels were measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit developed by Innova Life Tech. The assay was performed according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Aim To evaluate the role of the biomarker serum GP 73’s diagnosis accuracy in hepatic fibrosis in HBV patients who are treatment naive. Methods This study involved the enrollment of 40 HBV-naïve patients. complete medical history, clinical examination, laboratory analysis and abdominal ultrasound imaging were applied. Serum Golgi protein 73 level was measured and compared to their FIB-4 index and APRI scores. Results Males made up 65% of the 40 enrolled patients with the average age 43.78 ± 11.58 years. According to both APRI and FIB-4, 29 patients of total studied patients (72.5%) had no or mild fibrosis (< F2) and 11 patients (27.5%) had substantial hepatic fibrosis (≥ F2). Using the Pearson correlation coefficient, this study demonstrated significant statistical correlation between the APRI score and the FIB-4 Index with the patients’ age, hemoglobin, platelets, albumin, AST, ALT, PT-INR, and direct bilirubin levels. Age ( P < 0.005), AST ( P < 0.017), ALT ( P < 0.022), and platelets ( P < 0.002) were statistically significantly correlated with serum biomarker GP 73, while hemoglobin, albumin level, PT-INR, and direct bilirubin level were statistically insignificantly correlated. Conclusions Non-invasive serum biomarkers as the FIB-4 index, APRI score, and GP 73 levels can be utilized as good predictors of hepatic fibrosis in treatment-naïve chronic HBV patients, decreasing the need for invasive liver biopsy in the prediction of severe liver fibrosis.