Clinical Chemistry
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Clinical Chemistry 52: 1815-1817, 2006. First published July 20, 2006; 10.1373/clinchem.2006.070466
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(Clinical Chemistry. 2006;52:1815-1817.)
© 2006 American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Inc.

Technical Briefs

Connective Tissue Growth Factor in Serum as a New Candidate Test for Assessment of Hepatic Fibrosis

Axel M. Gressner1,a, Eray Yagmur1, Birgit Lahme1, Olav Gressner3 and Sven Stanzel2

1 Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Pathobiochemistry, Central Laboratory,2 Institute of Medical Statistics, RWTH University Hospital, Aachen, Germany;3 Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany;

aaddress correspondence to this author at: Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Pathobiochemistry-Central Laboratory, RWTH-University Hospital, Pauwelsstr. 30, 52074 Aachen, Germany; fax 49-0-241-8082512; e-mail gressner{at}rwth-aachen.de


Abstract

Background: No reliable, cost-effective serum test is available for assessment of liver fibrogenesis, the most serious complication of chronic inflammatory liver diseases (CLD). In sera of patients with CLD, we determined the concentration of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), a secreted downstream mediator of the potent fibrogenic cytokine transforming growth factor ß (TGF-ß).

Patients and Methods: We studied 83 patients with CLD (17 with chronic hepatitis, 16 with histologically proven fibrosis, and 50 with cirrhosis) and 74 healthy individuals. Serum CTGF was measured by use of a sandwich immunoassay.

Results: The mean concentration of CTGF was highest in the fibrosis group (5.2-fold) and in the chronic viral hepatitis group (4.3-fold) but lower in those patients with fully developed cirrhosis. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of CTGF for fibrosis vs control was 0.955 (95% confidence interval, 0.890–0.987). The CTGF/platelet ratio increased the detection limit for cirrhosis from 84% to 92% and the specificity from 85% to 87.5% (cutoff for CTGF was 364 µg/L, ratio 2.05).

Conclusion: CTGF in serum is a candidate marker of ongoing fibrogenesis in chronic liver diseases.






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