Reproducibility of blood tests of liver fibrosis in clinical practice.

Clinical biochemistry

Calès P, Veillon P, Konaté A, Mathieu E, Ternisien C, Chevailler A, Godon A, Gallois Y, Joubaud F, Hubert-Fouchard I, Oberti F, Réaud S, Hunault G, Mauriat F, Lunel-Fabiani F

2008 Clin. Biochem. Volume 41 Issue 1-2

PubMed 17988658 DOI 10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2007.08.009

FibroTest Analytics Independant Team HCV HBV Alcohol Other liver Disease Fibrosis

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the inter-laboratory reproducibility of blood test for liver fibrosis: FibroMeter, Fibrotest, APRI and their composites variables.

DESIGN AND METHODS

Four studies, including 147 patients, were performed: study #1 included 2 metachronous blood samples and 2 laboratories; studies #2, #3 and #4 included synchronous samples with assays delayed at day 1 in 12 laboratories, at day 0 in 10 laboratories and at day 0 or 1 in 2 laboratories, respectively. Agreement was evaluated by the intraclass correlation coefficient (r(ic)).

RESULTS

In studies #1, #2 and #4, r(ic) for FibroMeter was 0.893, 0.942 and 0.991, respectively. In study #3, the r(ic) were: FibroMeter: 0.963, Fibrotest: 0.984, APRI: 0.949. Large simulated variations in composite variables had a weak impact on FibroMeter.

CONCLUSIONS

When blood marker limits are controlled, inter-laboratory agreement of blood tests is excellent in clinical practice conditions. Blood tests are robust against the variability of composite blood variables.


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