Published in:
01-11-2011 | Original Article—Liver, Pancreas, and Biliary Tract
Platelet count for predicting fibrosis in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
Authors:
Masato Yoneda, Hideki Fujii, Yoshio Sumida, Hideyuki Hyogo, Yoshito Itoh, Masafumi Ono, Yuichiro Eguchi, Yasuaki Suzuki, Noriaki Aoki, Kazuyuki Kanemasa, Kento Imajo, Kazuaki Chayama, Toshiji Saibara, Norifumi Kawada, Kazuma Fujimoto, Yutaka Kohgo, Toshikazu Yoshikawa, Takeshi Okanoue, Japan Study Group of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (JSG-NAFLD)
Published in:
Journal of Gastroenterology
|
Issue 11/2011
Login to get access
Abstract
Background
The severity of liver fibrosis is known to be a good indicator for surveillance, and for determining the prognosis and optimal treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, it is virtually impossible to carry out liver biopsies in all NAFLD patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical usefulness of measuring the platelet count for predicting the severity of liver fibrosis in a large retrospective cohort of Japanese patients with NAFLD.
Methods
A total of 1,048 patients with liver-biopsy-confirmed NAFLD seen between 2002 and 2008 were enrolled from nine hepatology centers in Japan. Laboratory evaluations were performed for all patients.
Results
A linear decrease of the platelet count with increasing histological severity of hepatic fibrosis was revealed. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve estimating the diagnostic performance of the platelet count for hepatic fibrosis Stage 3 was 0.774 (optimal cutoff value, 19.2 × 104/μl; sensitivity, 62.7%; specificity, 76.3%), and that for Stage 4 was 0.918 (optimal cutoff value, 15.3 × 104/μl; sensitivity, 80.5%; specificity, 88.8%).
Conclusions
The platelet count may be an ideal biomarker of the severity of fibrosis in NAFLD patients, because it is simple, easy to measure and handle, cost-effective, and accurate for predicting the severity of fibrosis. Furthermore, by using the platelet count cutoff value validated in our multiple large trials, efficient recruitment of NAFLD patients may be facilitated.