Liquid biopsy for non-invasive assessment of liver injury in hepatitis B patients

Table 2 Serum alanine aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, bilirubin, albumin, plasma DNA, and serum hepatitis B virus DNA levels in different patient groups

Group	Number of cases	Serum ALT (U/L)	P	Bilirubin (μM)	P	Plasma DNA (ng/mL)	P	HBV DNA (IU/mL)	P	Serum AST (U/L)	P	Albumin(g/L)	P
Healthy controls	350	19.1 (15.1)				25.5 (17.6)		0.0 (0.0)		16.4 (14.3)		46.0 (22.2)
Acute HBV infec-tion	50	213.8 (355.9)		121.6 (207.0)		336.8 (179.5)		5.5 (2.4)		197.6 (312.5)		45.4 (24.6)
Chronic HBV infec-tion	263	88.3 (98.0)	< 0.011	73.9 (88.3)	< 0.011	106.4 (174.1)	< 0.011	6.2 (2.9)	0.059*	90.6 (93.7)	< 0.011	40.2 (41.3)	0.0041
Inflamma-tion			< 0.01		< 0.01		< 0.01		0.893		< 0.01		0.444
Mild	68	59.9 (41.5)		30.6 (31.4)		46.9 (29.5)		5.7 (2.5)		51.2 (50.6)		41.7 (28.6)
Modera-te	70	62.8 (68.0)		45.4 (50.4)		106.1 (127.2)		6.4 (3.1)		61.3 (72.9)		40.9 (30.4)
Marked	83	152.8 (114.7)		130 (125.5)		141.1 (77.4)		5.8 (2.8)		153.2 (160.8)		39.5 (32.6)
Severe	42	99.9 (148.0)		228 (254.9)		862.5 (1213.6)		6.8 (2.8)		91.7 (135.1)		39.8 (33.2)
Fibrosis			0.552		0.015		< 0.01		0.060		0.121		0.606
No cirrhosis	212	88.0 (106.4)		65.2 (58.2)		131.0 (235.8)		6.3 (3.1)		87.0 (93.0)		40.8 (38.6)
Stage 0	59	83.5 (98.6)		71.9 (70.3)		111.8 (477.0)		6.6 (3.0)		87.7 (91.6)		41.6 (38.5)
Stage 1	72	96.6 (81.2)		60.2 (66.7)		179.6 (235.3)		6.5 (3.0)		88.4 (90.3)		40.1 (38.3)
Stage 2	46	87.4 (89.0)		64.8 (79.6)		98.8 (90.1)		6.0 (2.7)		79.1 (82.5)		40.1 (38.7)
Stage 3	35	91.7 (110.3)		77.7 (72.4)		87.2 (77.7)		6.0 (2.7)		84.6 (88.0)		40.2 (39.9)
Cirrho-sis (Stage 4)	51	91.4 (73.5)		92.0 (99.4)		73.1 (44.8)		5.7 (2.1)		91.9 (94.5)		39.9 (43.8)

¹Compared with the acute hepatitis B virus infection patients. All continuous data are expressed as medians (interquartile range). ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; AST: Aspartate aminotransferase; HBV: Hepatitis B virus.