The {gamma}-glutamyl transpeptidase-to-platelet ratio as a predictor of liver fibrosis in patients co-infected with HBV and HIV

We read with great interest the recent article by Lemoine et al,1 whereby a novel biochemical-based score was able to accurately estimate liver fibrosis among patients chronically infected with HBV in West Africa. The -glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT)-to-platelet ratio (GPR) has several attractive features, including parameters that are easy to quantify, a straightforward calculation, and more importantly, much lower cost than other non-invasive methods. Yet as the authors conclude, the GPR needs further evaluation in other patient populations and one of utmost importance in resource-limited settings would be those co-infected with HBV and HIV.2 We explored data from a previous validation study among HIV-HBV co-infected patients in which non-invasive biomarkers were used to predict liver fibrosis. From 2002 to 2005, a subset of patients from the French HIV-HBV Cohort underwent liver biopsies during follow-up, as detailed elsewhere.3 Of them, 95 without additional hepatitis C...
Source: Gut - Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Tags: PostScript Source Type: research