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Subject Area

Endemic and Tropical Medicine

Article Type

Original Study

Abstract

Objectives To investigate serum beta-2 microglobulin (B2M) as a noninvasive marker for disease progression in chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients and to study its role as a tumor marker in diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Background HCV is a hepatotropic RNA virus that causes progressive liver damage, which might result in liver cirrhosis and HCC. Patients and methods From January 2020 to January 2022, this prospective study was carried on 136 participants who were classified into four groups: group I, 22 patients with noncirrhotic chronic hepatitis C; group II, 70 HCV-related cirrhotic patients; group III, 25 patients with HCC on top of HCV; and group IV, 19 healthy controls. Serum B2M was quantitatively measured in all of the studied groups. Results B2M was significantly higher in diseased groups than the control group, and it was significantly higher in cirrhosis and HCC groups than the chronic HCV group (P<0.001). The B2M cutoff value for HCC with cirrhosis group was 7.35, with sensitivity of 72.4% and specificity 60.1%, whereas the cutoff value for cirrhosis with chronic HCV group was 6.25. The sensitivity for HCC diagnosis increased upon combining B2M and alpha-fetoprotein, to be 96.4%, and specificity was 80%. Conclusion Serum B2M level was elevated in HCV-related chronic liver diseases and may be used as a marker for HCV disease progression toward cirrhosis and HCC.

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