Ultrasonogram of hepatocellular carcinoma is associated with outcome after radiofrequency ablation

Table 1 Comparison of patient characteristics according to B-mode ultrasound-based classification

	Type 1(n = 29)	Type 2b(n = 43)	Type 2c(n = 16)	P value
Age (yr)	66.4 ± 9.5	66.9 ± 8.7	69.3 ± 6.8	0.554
Gender (male/female)	23/6	25/18	8/8	0.085
HCV (positive/negative)	28/1	36/7	14/2	0.241
Number of tumors	1.2 ± 0.4	1.2 ± 0.5	1.6 ± 0.7	0.046
Size of tumor (mm)	22.5 ± 3.8	19.0 ± 5.2	23.1 ± 5.6	0.003
Child-Pugh classification (A/B)	16/13	31/12	9/7	0.272
Tumor stage (I/II/III)	10/15/4	28/13/2	4/7/5	0.006
Activity grade (A0, 1/2, 3)	7/22	14/29	10/6	0.032
Fibrosis stage (F0-2/3, 4)	8/21	10/33	7/9	0.298
AFP (ng/mL)	124 ± 246	118 ± 274	207 ± 406	0.564
AFP-L3 (%)	7.3 ± 17.0	5.8 ± 16.5	17.5 ± 25.5	0.098
DCP (mAU/mL)	223 ± 489	210 ± 482	299 ± 486	0.817

Data are presented as mean ± SD or n/N. HCV: Hepatitis C virus; AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; AFP-L3: Lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive alpha-fetoprotein; DCP: Des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin.

Table 2 Univariate analysis of factors contributing to recurrence

Variables	HR	95%CI	P value
Age (yr)	1.007	0.972-1.043	0.717
Gender
Female	1
Male	1.036	0.577-1.859	0.906
HCV
Negative	1
Positive	1.176	0.527-2.625	0.693
Number of tumors	1.557	1.009-2.404	0.045
Size of tumor (mm)	1.035	0.980-1.092	0.214
Child-Pugh classification
A	1
B	1.481	0.838-2.617	0.177
Tumor stage
I	1
II	1.214	0.657-2.244	0.535
III	5.055	2.123-12.034	0.000
Activity grade
A0, 1	1
A2, 3	1.346	0.745-2.430	0.325
Fibrosis stage
F0-2	1
F3, 4	1.323	0.689-2.540	0.401
AFP (ng/mL)	1.000	1.000-1.001	0.318
AFP-L3 (%)	1.017	1.004-1.030	0.023
DCP (mAU/mL)	1.000	1.000-1.001	0.332
B-mode classification
Type 2b	1
Type 1	1.531	0.767-3.053	0.227
Type 2c	3.179	1.623-6.227	0.001

HR: Hazard ratio; HCV: Hepatitis C virus; AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; AFP-L3: Lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive alpha-fetoprotein; DCP: Des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin.

Table 3 Multivariate analysis of factors contributing to recurrence

Variables	HR	95%CI	P value
n	1.411	0.719-2.770	0.317
Tumor stage
I	1
II	0.645	0.283-1.467	0.296
III	2.540	0.784-8.224	0.120
AFP-L3
Negative	1
Positive	1.531	0.642-3.649	0.337
B-mode classification
Type 2b	1
Type 1	1.850	0.878-3.899	0.106
Type 2c	2.438	1.107-5.373	0.027

HR: Hazard ratio; AFP-L3: Lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive alpha-fetoprotein.

Table 4 Univariate analysis of factors contributing to survival

Variables	HR	95%CI	P value
Age (yr)	0.979	0.929-1.032	0.440
Gender
Female	1
Male	1.161	0.435-3.096	0.766
HCV
Negative	1
Positive	0.947	0.218-4.124	0.943
Number of tumors	1.700	0.840-3.440	0.140
Size of tumor (mm)	1.030	0.945-1.123	0.504
Child-Pugh classification
A	1
B	1.789	0.710-4.512	0.218
Tumor stage
I	1
II	1.588	0.551-4.579	0.392
III	3.847	1.081-13.690	0.037
Activity grade
A0, 1	1
A2, 3	1.978	0.698-5.606	0.200
Fibrosis stage
F0-2	1
F3, 4	1.292	0.425-3.930	0.652
AFP (ng/mL)	1.001	1.000-1.002	0.087
AFP-L3 (%)	1.012	0.995-1.031	0.212
DCP (mAU/mL)	1.000	0.999-1.001	0.919
B-mode classification
Type 2b	1
Type 1	6.911	1.897-25.176	0.003
Type 2c	4.466	1.066-18.709	0.041

HR: Hazard ratio; HCV: Hepatitis C virus; AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; AFP-L3: Lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive alpha-fetoprotein; DCP: Des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin.

Table 5 Multivariate analysis of factors contributing to survival

Variables	HR	95%CI	P value
Tumor stage
I	1
II	1.189	0.406-3.481	0.752
III	3.763	0.896-15.796	0.070
B-mode classification
Type 2b	1
Type 1	7.146	1.924-26.538	0.003
Type 2c	3.055	0.668-13.970	0.150

HR: Hazard ratio.