Pentraxin 3 Detects Clinically Significant Fibrosis in Patients with Chronic Viral Hepatitis C

Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) plays a pathogenic role in experimental models of chronic liver injury and contributes to the progression of fibrosis. The detection of advanced fibrosis (METAVIR F≥3) is important to identify patients who are in urgent need of antiviral treatments versus those whose treatment could be deferred (F≥2). The aim was to assess the diagnostic value of PTX3 as a potential biomarker for clinically significant and advanced fibrosis. PTX3 associations with biochemical and histological parameters of inflammatory activity and fibrosis were investigated in 138 patients with chronic viral hepatitis C (HCV) before antiviral treatment. METAVIR histological scores of activity and fibrosis were obtained. PTX3 was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The diagnostic accuracy of serum PTX3 levels was compared to that of other fibrosis markers, including transforming growth factor-β ₁ (TGF-β ₁), hyaluronic acid (HA), aspartate transaminase to platelet ratio index (APRI), fibrosis score based on four factors (FIB4), gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase to platelet ratio (GPR), and the liver stiffness measurement (LSM) by transient elastography (FibroScan®). In HCV patients the PTX3 level increased in parallel with the METAVIR histological score of activity, being independently associated with the METAVIR fibrosis score (P < 0.001). Using the receiver operating characteristics analysis, the best marker for detecting F≥2 and F≥3 was PTX3 with AUC = 0.802 and AUC = 0.867, respectively. The area under the curve of PTX3 for predicting significant fibrosis (F≥2) was significantly greater than those for the GPR ratio (AUC = 0.648) and FIB-4 score (AUC = 0.770) and similar to that for APRI index (AUC = 0.831). PTX3 provided clinically relevant diagnostic accuracy as a single marker of significant fibrosis.