Background: An accurate diagnosis of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-related liver lesions is mandatory in dialysis patients and kidney recipients to better define the treatment of and contraindications to kidney transplantation. The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the fibrotest (a noninvasive method to assess liver fibrosis in HCV on a scale from 0 to 1) in hemodialysis and renal transplant patients infected by chronic HCV.
Methods: In all, 110 patients with biopsy-proven HCV (60 renal transplant recipients and 50 hemodialysis patients), determined using the METAVIR scoring system, were studied.
Results: Forty-six percent of patients had fibrosis > or =F2. A positive predictive value of a score >0.6 for the presence of significant fibrosis by comparison with liver biopsy was 71%, and an negative predictive value of < 0.2 for excluding significant fibrosis was 77%, respectively. The areas under the ROC curves for the diagnosis of significant fibrosis were 0.66, 0.47, and 0.71 in the global population, hemodialysis patients, and renal transplant patients, respectively. In all, 75% of patients were correctly classified using the fibrotest. If biopsy was restricted to scores in the intermediate range (< 0.6 and >0.2), the index could reduce the indication for biopsy by 47%. The results did not differ significantly in hemodialysis and renal transplant patients.
Conclusion: The fibrotest has a diagnostic value in hemodialysis and renal transplant patients which is similar to that reported in the general population (75%) and its use could avoid 32% of liver biopsies if it were interpreted in detail in nephrology patients.