Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging and micro-RNA in the diagnosis of hepatic fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C virus

Table 1 Comparison of demographic and laboratory data in F0, early fibrosis, and late fibrosis groups

Parameter	Control, n = 82	Early fibrosis, n = 112	Late fibrosis, n = 96	P value
Age	38.3 ± 10.2	34.1 ± 8.9	41.4 ± 7.823	0.001
Gender (M:F)	47:35	69:43	60:36	0.8
ALT	36.29 ± 17.24	52.00 ± 36.071	57.17 ± 36.8823	0.001
AST	35.00 ± 15.71	49.00 ± 25.121	58.00 ± 35.1223	0.001
Albumin	4.10 ± 0.45	4.20 ± 0.44	3.80 ± 0.6923	0.001
Bilirubin	0.88 ± 0.48	0.81 ± 0.26	1.02 ± 0.462	0.001
PCR	95746 ± 10111	391000 ± 2138761	254500 ± 12931423	0.001
AFP	7.50 ± 1.57	5.01 ± 2.951	10.47 ± 6.7823	0.001

¹Significance between control and early;

²Significance between control and late;

³Significance between late and early. Data expressed as mean and standard deviation, F one way analysis of variance test was used for comparison between the three groups. Student’s t-test was used to compare between each two groups. ALT: Alanine transaminase; AST: Aspartate transaminase; PCR: Polymerase chain reaction; AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein.

Table 2 The median apparent diffusion coefficient and micro-RNAs values of patients versus controls

Parameter	Fibrosis, n = 208	Control, n = 82	P value
ADC	1.43 ± 0.22	1.92 ± 0.08	0.001
miR-200b	4.61 ± 1.21	1.20 ± 0.81	0.001
miR-21	2.70 ± 1.30	1.29 ± 0.40	0.001
miR-29b	0.58 ± 0.26	0.98 ± 0.16	0.001

Data expressed as mean and standard deviation. Student’s t-test was used. miR: Micro-RNAs; ADC: Apparent diffusion coefficient.

Table 3 The receiver operating characteristic curve results with cut-off values of apparent diffusion coefficient and serum markers for patients and controls

Parameter	AUC	Cut-off point	Sensitivity	Specificity	Accuracy
ADC	0.992	1.825	98.6%	97.0%	97.1%
miR-200b	0.925	1.65	92.3%	82.2%	91.2%
miR-21	0.865	1.35	82.2%	76.0%	84.2%
miR-29b	0.937	0.91	92.3%	81.7%	91.0%
ADC and miR-200b	0.995	-	100%	96.0%	96.9%
ADC and miR-21	0.992	-	100%	95.0%	96.2%
ADC and miR-29b	0.992	-	100%	95.9%	95.9%

ROC: Receiver operating characteristic curve; AUC: Area under the curve; miR: Micro-RNAs; ADC: Apparent diffusion coefficient.

Table 4 The median, minimum, and maximum values of apparent diffusion coefficient and serum markers of patients with early and late fibrosis

Variables	Early fibrosis, n = 112	Late fibrosis, n = 96	P value
ADC	1.5 ± 0.2 (1-1.9)	1.25 ± 0.17 (0.9-1.5)	0.001
miR-200b	3.43 ± 1.71 (1.0-1.4)	10.17 ± 4.81 (1-28.4)	0.001
miR-21	1.9 ± 0.7 (1.0-4.2)	3.6 ± 1.17 (1.0-6.34)	0.001
miR-29b	0.7 ± 0.12 (0.12-1.00)	0.4 ± 0.2 (0.07-1.00)	0.001

The data expressed as median and range. Mann-Whitney u test was used. ADC: Apparent diffusion coefficient; miR: Micro-RNAs.

Table 5 The cut-off values of apparent diffusion coefficient and micro-RNAs used to differentiate early from late fibrosis with areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves, sensitivity, specificity and accuracy

Parameter	AUC	Cut-off point	Sensitivity	Specificity	Accuracy
ADC	0.866	1.53	99.0%	67.0%	81.7%
miR-200b	0.888	3.55	90.6%	59.5%	73.5%
miR-21	0.877	2.38	91.7%	70.3%	80.2%
miR-29b	0.832	0.70	87.5%	60.7%	73%
ADC and miR-200b	0.925	-	71.7%	97.2%	80.2%
ADC and miR-21	0.88	-	72.3%	97.5%	83.2%
ADC and miR-29b	0.879	-	74%	96.5%	85.1%

AUC: Area under the curve; miR: Micro-RNAs; ADC: Apparent diffusion coefficient.