Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 20, 2026
Mouse Model of Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease with Fibrosis
Published on: July 18, 2025
PRO-C3: a new and more precise collagen marker for liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C
Janne Fuglsang Hansen1, Mette Juul Nielsen2, Kristina Nyström3
1a Department of Infectious Diseases , Odense University Hospital , Odense , Denmark.
Objective:
Detecting significant fibrosis and cirrhosis remains important in treatment and follow-up of patients with chronic hepatitis C Infection (CHC). The aim of this study was to assess the ability of PRO-C3 to identify significant fibrosis (Ishak score ≥3) and cirrhosis (Ishak score ≥5) both as a single test and as a part of algorithms.
Materials And Methods:
PRO-C3 was assessed in baseline samples from the NORDynamIC trial. 270 patients were stratified into groups according to baseline biopsy. Baseline APRI, FIB-4 and GUCI scores were available for comparison in 232 patients.
Results:
PRO-C3 increased with Ishak scores (p = .001). Area under the curve (AUC) for significant fibrosis was 0.75 (95% CI 0.68-0.81) and 0.76 (95% CI 0.68-0.84) for cirrhosis. FIB-4, APRI and GUCI had similar AUCs. In a PRO-C3 algorithm including age, platelet count, body mass index (BMI) and international normalised ratio (INR), the diagnostic efficacy improved to 0.85 (CI 0.80-0.89) and 0.90 (IQR 0.84-0.96) for significant fibrosis and cirrhosis, respectively.
Conclusions:
In our study, PRO-C3 was an independent predictor of fibrosis stage, and may play an important role in managing CHC patients.
