Clinical significance of serum Wisteria floribunda agglutinin positive Mac‐2‐binding protein level and high‐sensitivity C‐reactive protein concentration in autoimmune hepatitis

Abstract

We aimed to examine the relationship between the Wisteria floribunda agglutinin positive Mac-2-binding protein (WFA⁺-M2BP) level and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hCRP) concentration and liver histological findings for patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH). A total of 84 AIH patients (median age, 64 years) were analyzed. We examined the effect of pretreatment WFA⁺-M2BP level and hCRP concentration on histological findings of liver fibrosis and liver inflammation activity comparing with other laboratory markers. Receiver–operator curve (ROC) analysis was performed for calculating the area under the ROC (AUROC). The median WFA⁺-M2BP values in each fibrosis stage were: 1.5 cut-off index (COI) in F1, 2.1 in F2, 3.3 in F3 and 9.8 in F4 (P < 0.001). The median WFA⁺-M2BP values in each liver inflammation stage were: 1.6 COI in A1, 2.5 in A2 and 5.4 in A3 (P < 0.001). For predicting liver cirrhosis (F4), WFA⁺-M2BP yielded the highest AUROC (0.853). For predicting advanced liver fibrosis (F3 or F4), WFA⁺-M2BP, FIB-4 index and hyaluronic acid yielded the highest AUROC (0.747). For predicting severe liver inflammation activity (A3), WFA⁺-M2BP yielded the highest AUROC (0.739). The hCRP concentration in patients with A3 (median, 2230 ng/mL) was significantly higher than that in patients with A1 or A2 (median, 854.5 ng/mL) (P < 0.01). WFA⁺-M2BP level significantly correlated with hCRP concentration (r_s = 0.461, P < 0.001). WFA⁺-M2BP can be a useful marker for assessing liver histological findings in AIH patients and it correlated well with hCRP concentration.