7th International AIDS Society Conference, Kuala Lumpur, June 2013:
Researchers from a Spanish study reported on a non-invasive way to measure liver stiffness that may help predict the risk of liver disease progression in people who are co-infected with HIV and hepatitis C. This method, called non-invasive transient elastometry, is known as FibroScan.
Although routine blood work can provide some information on liver health, they are not as accurate as a biopsy. And although biopsies are considered the gold standard of care, they can also present barriers for patients and providers. Therefore, accurate and non-invasive ways to assess liver health are needed since co- infected people are at a higher risk of faster liver damage than are people with hepatitis C alone.
This study followed 297 co-infected people to predict the risk of liver decompensation (when the liver cannot function properly) and death. All had both a FibroScan and a biopsy performed no more than 12 months apart. A total of 225 were men and 275 were on HIV meds. The average CD4 count was 513 and 79% had undetectable viral loads.
The results showed that FibroScan was more accurate at assessing the risk of decompensation than biopsy (7.1% more accurate). As for predicting a person’s survival rate, FibroScan offered a similar accuracy as biopsy (although 3.9% more accurate). Although FibroScan was just recently approved by the FDA for use in the US, it is used widely throughout Europe.
ABSTRACT
J Macías, A Camacho, MA von Wichmann, et al. Prediction of survival and decompensatios of cirrhosis among HIV/HCV-co-infected patients: a comparison of liver stiffness versus liver biopsy. Abstract TUAB01014. 7th IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention. Kuala Lumpur, June 30-July 3, 2013.
For more detailed discussion on this topic, go to HIVandHepatitis.com.