[Diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma performed by searching for serologic tumor markers]

Serum levels of alkaline phosphatase, gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase, -1 fucosidase and glutathione-S-transferase are increased in 60, 90, 75 and 64% of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. In these patients the mean plasma fibrinogen levels is 461.78 mg/dl, while mean serum copper is 200.50 mg/dl. Serum levels of desgamma-carboxiprothrombin is over 900 mg/dl in 67% of the patients (60% of them have HB virus, mostly anti HBe positive). Forty to 95% of them have increased levels of -fetoprotein (AFP). The authors suggest that cirrhotic patients, with or without HB virus, specially those with increased AFP, should have ultrasound examination of the liver every 6 months. This method of imaging has been shown to be more sensitive than AFP (72% versus 25%) in the detection of hepatocellular carcinoma smaller than 2 cm in diameter.