Value of the inflammatory markers albumin, C-reactive protein, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and interleukin-6 in predicting hepatocellular carcinoma with different types of portal vein thrombosis / 临床肝胆病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the biochemical and routine blood parameters in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with portal vein blood thrombus (PVBT) or portal vein tumor thrombosis (PVTT), as well as the expression level and clinical significance of inflammatory indices in patients with different types of PVBT. Methods A total of 51 HCC patients with PVBT and 37 HCC patients with PVTT who were diagnosed and treated in The Second Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University from January 2016 to December 2020 were enrolled as PVBT group and PVTT group, respectively, and 50 HCC patients without portal vein thrombosis who were hospitalized during the same period of time were enrolled as control group. General clinical data and laboratory test results were collected from the three groups. The chi-square test or the Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test was used for comparison of categorical data between groups; a one-way analysis of variance was used for comparison of normally distributed continuous data between groups, and the Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test was used for comparison of non-normally distributed continuous data between groups. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to investigate the expression levels of albumin (Alb), C-reactive protein (CRP), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in the PVBT group and the PVTT group, and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) was calculated to analyze their value in predicting different types of thrombosis. Results There were no significant differences in general data and conventional biochemical parameters between the three groups (all P > 0.05), while there were significant differences in the inflammatory indices Alb, CRP, ESR, and IL-6 between the three groups ( H =10.207, 24.465, 8.917, and 37.584, P =0.006, P < 0.001, P =0.012, and P < 0.001), and further analysis between two groups showed that the PVTT group had a significantly lower level of Alb and significantly higher levels of CRP, ESR, and IL-6 than the PVBT group and the control group, and the PVBT group had significantly higher levels of CRP and IL-6 than the control group (all P < 0.05). The ROC curve analysis showed that Alb, CRP, ESR, and IL-6 had an AUC of 0.659, 0.826, 0.679, and 0.873, respectively, in the PVTT group, as well as an AUC of 0.508, 0.635, 0.503, and 0.701, respectively, in the PVBT group. Conclusion HCC patients with PVTT tend to have high expression levels of the inflammatory indices IL-6, CRP, and ESR and a low expression level of Alb, and their predictive value decreases successively, while HCC patients with PVBT tend to have relatively low expression levels IL-6, CRP, and ESR and a relatively high expression level of Alb. IL-6 and CRP have a certain value in predicting PVBT, while ESR and ALB have little predictive value.