Validation of the PAGE-B score to predict hepatocellular carcinoma risk in caucasian chronic hepatitis B patients on treatment

Table 2 Comparison of baseline characteristics of patients with and without hepatocellular carcinoma

	Patients with HCC	Patients without HCC	P value
Age (yr) mean ± SE	57.8 ± 2.3	44.5 ± 0.5	< 0.001
Male gender, n (%)	24 (92.3)	448 (62.6)	0.004
Cirrhosis, n (%)	16 (61.5)	145 (20.3)	< 0.001
Diabetes mellitus, n (%)	8 (32)	108(15.1)	0.043
Antiviral treatment (ETV/TDF), n (%)	10 (38.5)/16 (61.5)	230 (32.1)/486 (67.9)	0.642
Laboratory (mean ± SE)
HBeAg positivity, n (%)	6 (23.1)	165 (23.0)	1.000
ALT (IU/L)	92.9 ± 25.7	98.3 ± 5.7	0.856
Albumin (g/dL)	3.9 ± 0.1	4.1 ± 0.0	0.014
Total bilirubin (mg/dL)	0.9 ± 0.1	1.0 ± 0.1	0.709
AFP (ng/mL)	23.3 ± 9.6	5.2 ± 0.4	< 0.001
INR	1.1 ± 0.0	1.1 ± 0.0	0.143
Platelet (10³/mL)	128.8 ± 8.6	203.5 ± 2.5	< 0.001
HBV-DNA (log IU/mL)	5.4 ± 0.3	5.5 ± 0.1	0.859

ALT: Alanine transaminase; AFP: Alpha-fetoprotein; ETV: Entecavir; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; SE: Standard error of mean; TDF: Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate; HBeAg: Hepatitis B e antigen; INR: International normalized ratio; HBV: Hepatitis B virus.