الفهرس 
Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver DiseaseOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
ABSTRACT
Background: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) includes a variety of histopathological findings ranging from simple steatosis to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) which can only be differentiated by liver biopsy. There is yet no unique biomarker found to discriminate NASH from simple steatosis. We aimed to investigate the relationship of plasma pentraxin 3 (PTX3) and liver elasticity measured by fibroscan both with the degree of liver damage in NAFLD.
Methods: Plasma PTX3 levels & fibroscan measurements were estimated in 60 patients with NAFLD (30 with NASH, 30 with non-NASH) and 20 controls
Results: PTX3 levels were found significantly higher in the NAFLD group than in the control group (3.59 ± 1.77 vs. 1.16 + – 0.29 ng/mL, P < 0.001), and in NASH subgroup than non-NASH subgroup (4.97 + – 1.36 vs. 21 + –.75 ng/mL, P= 0.001). To discriminate NASH from non-NASH PTX3 had 96.67% sensitivity and 93.33% specificity at the cutoff value of 3.1 ng/mL. Plasma PTX3 levels showed no significant correlation with NAFLD activity score, fibrosis stage and steatosis.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated markedly higher PTX3 levels in NAFLD patients compared with controls, and in NASH patients compared with non-NASH ones and no correlation wih fibroscan stages. Thus, in this cohort we showed that plasma PTX3 may be a promising biomarker for the presence of NASH.