Combining liver stiffness with hyaluronic acid provides superior prognostic performance in chronic hepatitis C

BackgroundNon-invasive methods are the first choice for liver fibrosis evaluation in chronic liver diseases, but few studies investigate the ability of combined methods to predict outcomes.Methods591 chronic hepatitis C patients with baseline liver stiffness (LSM) by FibroScan and hyaluronic acid measurements were identified retrospectively. The patients were grouped by baseline LSM: ResultsMedian follow-up was 46.1 months. Prevalence of cirrhosis at baseline was 107/591 (18.1%). Median LSM was 6.8kPa (IQR 5.3–11.6) and divided into groups, 404/591 (68.4%) had a LSM ConclusionsThe combination of LSM and circulating hyaluronic acid measurements significantly improved prognostic ability, relative to LSM alone. Combined static and dynamic markers of liver fibrosis could provide superior risk prediction.