Serum gp73 is also a biomarker for diagnosing cirrhosis in population with chronic HBV infection

To clarify the role of Golgi membrane glycoprotein 73 (gp73) in evaluating the progression of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.

Participants included 958 controls, 421 chronic hepatitis B, 944 hepatic cirrhosis, and 127 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. All the patients, with the exception of the controls, were diagnosed HBsAg positive. Serum biomarkers, including gp73, alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), alpha-l-fucosidase, and Lens culinaris agglutinin-reactive fraction of AFP, were determined.

The patients with Hepatic cirrhosis gp73 levels over 150 ng/mL had an odds ratio of 3.21 (95% CI: 2.07-5.00). In hepatic cirrhosis patients, serum gp73 correlated with the Child-Pugh score. gp73 is a marker for diagnosing cirrhosis in the hepatitis populations. When the cut-off was set at 75.5 ng/mL, the sensitivity, specificity, and AUC were 75.6% (95% CI: 71.30%-79.62%), 60.3% (95% CI: 56.95%-63.63%) and 0.72 (95% CI: 0.69-0.75), respectively.

The variation trend of gp73 in chronic liver disease may indicate that monitoring of serum gp73 is helpful to diagnose cirrhosis in population with chronic HBV infection.