Post-treatment liver stiffness predicts complications, HCC in hepatitis C
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
SAN DIEGO — Liver stiffness assessment predicted liver-related complications and hepatocellular carcinoma development among patients with hepatitis C following direct-acting antiviral treatment, according to research.
“HCV infection is one of the leading causes of cirrhosis, HCC and liver-related complications. Sustained virological response is achieved in 80% to 95% of chronic HCV patients treated with direct-acting antivirals, or DAAs,” Prooksa Anancheunsook, MD, a faculty member in gastroenterology at Chulalongkorn University and King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in Bangkok, said at Digestive Disease Week 2022. “However, the risk for HCC and liver-related complications is not eliminated despite viral eradication.”
Seeking to identify predictors for HCC and liver-related complication development, Anancheunsook and colleagues analyzed 244 patients with HCV who achieved sustained virological response (SVR) following DAA treatment at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital from January 2015 to December 2019. Data collected at pre-treatment and during the 12 months following SVR included patient characteristics, aspartate transaminase to platelet ratio index (APRI), Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) score and liver stiffness measured by transient elastography. Researchers defined SVR by undetectable HCV RNA 12 weeks after end-of-treatment and transient elastography cut-off for advanced fibrosis as 10 kPa.
During a median follow-up of 34.5 months, 7.8% of patients developed liver-related complications, 7% developed HCC and 4.9% died. Compared with pre-treatment values, researchers observed decreased liver stiffness (16.39 ± 13.37 kPa vs. 11.35 ±9.8 kPa), APRI (1.69 ± 1.94 vs. 0.6 ± 0.53) and FIB-4 score (3.92 ± 5.01 vs. 2.59 ± 3.17) following SVR. While transient elastography score greater than 20 kPa independently predicted the development of composite outcomes (adjusted HR = 3.92; 95% CI, 1.15-13.36), pre-treatment liver stiffness did not significantly associate with any studied outcomes.
“Post-treatment liver stiffness was more reliable than pre-treatment values for predicting adverse outcomes in hepatitis C-infection patients with SVR after DAA therapy,” Anancheunsook concluded.
Collapse
Anancheunsook P, et al. Abstract 98. Presented at: Digestive Disease Week; May 21-24, 2022; San Diego (hybrid meeting).
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts