This study was carried out in Bertha University hospital on 20 patients
with liver cirrhosis (Group 1), 25 patients with chronic hepatitis (Group Ii)
and 20 healthy controls. Thorough history and clinical examination was done to all subjects.
Abdominal ultrasonography and the following laboratory investigations
were performed to every subject: AST, ALT, serum albumin, serum bilirubin,
Prothrornbin time (131), HCV Ab, HBs Ag, HBc Ab (IgG), Hbe Ab and
serum level of intercellular adhesion molecule- I "sICAM- I". Liver biopsy
was done to patients only. Assessment of disease severity was judged
by Child-Pugh classification. Assessment of disease activity was done by
histopathological staging and by ALT and AST levels.
Our work showed that serum level of slCAM- I was significantly high
in both patient groups compared to controls, and this elevation_ was attributed
to both increased hepatic production and defective hepatic clearance.
The serum level of sICAM-I correlated significantly with both disease
severity and activity. Our study showed that serum level of slC4M-1 can be used as a
screening non-invasive test with high specificity (100%) and sensitivity
(94.6%) to detect patients with chronic liver diseases. On the other hand
we failed to find a significant dEfference in the serum level of sICAM-I between
the two patient groups. Therefore, seraTinebel of slCAM- I has apoor diagnostic value with low specificity (78.6%) and sensitivity (43.5%)to differentiate patients with chronic hepatitis from patients with cirrhosis. |
