Factors predicting aggressiveness of non-hypervascular hepatic nodules detected on hepatobiliary phase of gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylene-triamine-pentaacetic-acid magnetic resonance imaging

Table 2 Multivariate analysis (generalized estimating equation)

Variable	Coefficient	95%CI	Level of significance	Condition1	Step2
Age	0.36	0.17-0.54	< 0.01		8th
EOB 1st	6.51	2.93-10.09	< 0.01	Detectable	8th
Background	8.70	3.36-14.04	< 0.01	HBV	8th
Background	6.03	1.34-10.71	0.01	HCV	8th
Log DCP	9.37	1.25-17.49	0.02		8th
Fat	-4.05	-7.75 - -0.36	0.03	Yes	8th
Size	-0.01	-0.43-0.41	0.97		1st
Log AFP	0.28	-2.67-3.24	0.85		2nd
Gender	-0.87	-5.69-3.94	0.72	Male	3rd
EOB 2nd	0.82	-1.05-2.69	0.39	Detectable	4th
T1/T2	2.52	-1.75-6.79	0.25	Detectable	5th
L3	-0.03	-0.19-0.13	0.70		6th
Child-Pugh	-1.74	-5.94-2.45	0.42	A	7th
Classical HCC	3.60	-0.43-7.63	0.08	Never	8th

¹In each variable, which state shows a positive coefficient value for the prediction of disease progression;

²The number of steps where the corresponding variables were included (above the blank line) or excluded (below the blank line) for generalized estimating equation analysis based on the level of significance. EOB 1^st: If a nodule could be detected with lower attenuation in the arterial phase of dynamic Gd-EOB-DTPA-MRI; Log DCP: A log10 value of des-γ-carboxy prothrombin; Fat: If a nodule was judged to include fat deposition in MRI study; Log AFP: A log10 value of α-fetoprotein; EOB 2^nd: If a nodule could be detected in the equilibrium phase of dynamic Gd-EOB-DTPA-MRI; T1/T2: If a nodule could be detected in T1-weighted and/or T2-weighted imaging of MRI study; L3: A percentage of Lens culinaris agglutinin A-reactive species against total AFP; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; Gd-EOB-DTPA-MRI: Gadolinium ethoxybenzyl diethylene-triamine-pentaacetic-acid magnetic resonance imaging.