ABSTRACT
Objective To detect the level of serum fragmented cytokeratin 18 (CK-18 M30) in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), to explore the relationship between the expression of CK-18 M30 and NASH. Methods 33 healthy people as control group, 24 nonalcoholic simple fatty liver (NAFL) patients, and 21 NASH patients were included in this study. CK-18 M30, ALT, AST and GGT were detected in all patients’ vein blood. NAFLD activity points (NAS) was examined in biopsy specimens of NAFL patients and NASH patients. Pearson correlation was applied to analyze the correlations between serum CK-18 M30, ALT, AST, GGT and the NAS of liver tissue in NASH group. Results Serum CK-18 M30 level of healthy control, NAFL and NASH group were (96.557 2 ± 41.226 8)U/L, (104.321 7 ± 45.167 3)U/L, (263.125 5 ± 61.578 1)U/L respectively. Serum CK-18 M30 level in NASH patients positively correlated with both NAS of liver tissue and serum ALT, which correlation coefficient r values were 0.601 5 and 0.420 6. Conclusion The concentration of serum CK-18 M30 could be used as a marker in the diagnosis of NASH.