Diagnosis value of peripheral blood TEMs percentage in the AFP negative early hepatocellular carcinoma / 中华检验医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the diagnosis value of the percentage of Tie 2-expressing monocytes(TEMs)in CD14+CD16+monocytes of peripheral blood from hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC) patients with negative AFP and tumor size≤3 cm.Methods Flow Cytometry(FCM)was used to determine the percentage of TEMs in CD14+CD16+monocytes of peripheral blood from patients with HCC(n=82), liver cirrhosis(n=29), chronic hepatitis B(n=28), and healthy controls(n=31).Abbott i2000 microparticle chemiluminescence immunoassay analyzer was used to determine the plasma alpha -fetoprotein (AFP)levels.The difference among multi groups was analyzed by the Kruskal-Wallis H test.Two independent groups were analyzed by the Mann-Whitney U test.The chi-square test was used in the rate comparison.The correlation between TEMs and AFP was analyzed by Spearman rank correlation analysis. Morever, the areas under the receiver operating characteristic curves(ROC-AUC), sensitivity and specificity of TEMs or AFP in differentiating HCC, HCC with AFP negative or tumor size≤3 cm were analyzed.Results The percentage of TEMs in CD14 +CD16 +monocytes of peripheral blood from HCC or HCC with negative AFP or HCC with tumor size≤3 cm was significantly higher than that in patients with liver cirrhosis,chronic hepatitis B and healthy controls(P<0.05).ROC-AUC of TEMs and AFP in the diagnosis of HCC were 0.701(95% CI 0.626-0.768)and 0.712(95% CI 0.638-0.779) respectively.When the cut-off values of TEMs and AFP were 4.95%and 20 μg/L,the sensitivities of TEMs and AFP were 71.95%and 45.12%,and the specificities of TEMs and AFP were 70.45%and 85.23%. The sensitivity of TEMs in the diagnosis of HCC was significantly higher than that of AFP(χ2=12.16,P=0.000).The specificity of AFP was significantly higher than that of TEMs(χ2=5.57,P=0.018).There was a highest sensitivity(89.02%)in TEMs/AFP method,and there was a highest specificity(93.18%) in TEMs+AFP method in the diagnosis of HCC.There was no significant difference between the ROC-AUC for the TEMs and the AFP in the diagnosis of 26 patients with tumor size≤3 cm HCC(0.776 vs 0.645,Z=1.805,P=0.071),TEMs/AFP had the highest sensitivity(84.62%),while TEMs+AFP had the highest specificity(93.18%)in the diagnosis of tumor size≤3cm HCC.The ROC-AUC for the TEMs in the diagnosis of 45 patients with AFP negative HCC was 0.739(95%CI 0.648-0.829).The sensitivity and specificity of TEMs were 80.0% and 70.45% respectively.There was no correlation between the level of plasma AFP and the percentage of TEMs(r=-0.169, P=0.129)determined by Spearmans rank correlation coefficient.Conclusions TEMs is valuable in the diagnosis of HCC with negative AFP and tumor size≤3cm,and the two tests of TEMs and AFP can complement each other in the diagnosis of patients with HCC.