Evaluation of liver stiffness measurement by fibroscan as compared to liver biopsy for assessment of hepatic fibrosis in children with chronic hepatitis C.

The study evaluated liver stiffness measurement (LSM) using non-invasive transient elastography (TE) in comparison with liver biopsy for assessment of hepatic fibrosis in children with chronic hepatitis C (CHC). Thirty children (mean age 10.13 +/- 3.4 years) with CHC were subjected to histopathological assessment of liver biopsy specimens using METAVIER score and LSM using TE (FibroScan) as well as appropriate laboratory investigations. The results showed a highly significant stepwise increase of the mean liver stiffness values with increasing histological severity of hepatic fibrosis with the highest level detected in patients with stage F4 "cirrhosis" and significant differences for F3 and F4 vs. other fibrosis stages. There were significant positive correlations between LSM and several parameters of activity and progression of the chronic liver disease including METAVIER fibrosis stages (r=0.774, p=0.0001), necroinflammatory activity grades, AST, ALT, total serum bilirubin, prothrombin time and Child-Pugh grades as well as biochemical serum fibrosis markers (Fibrotest, Actitest, AST-to-platelet ratio index, Forns index and hyaluronic acid). The variables significantly negatively associated with the LSM were platelets count and serum albumin. The highest predictive performance of LSM was detected for stage F4 "cirrhosis", followed by F3 "advanced fibrosis" where accuracy of(96.7%, 85.3%) and AUROC of (1.00, 0.815) were obtained for these fibrosis stages at cutoff values of 9.5 and 12.5 kPa, respectively. The negative predictive values to exclude advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis at these cutoffs were high, whereas positive predictive values were modest.