Liver Volume Index An Independent Factor For Prediction Of Liver Cirrhosis Of Patients With Biliary Atresia

Objective To investigate the application value of CT measurement of liver volume index(LVI) in cirrhosis of biliary atresia.Methods This study included41cases of biliary atresia patients between January2006and February2013. The hepatic cirrhosis of liver specimen was graded using the Metavir classification. F0～F3grade was considered as non-cirrhosis, F4grade was considered as hepatic cirrhosis. LV was measured by using64-row spiral CT in all research objects, and LV index was calculated according to the formula. Analysis the correlation between the LVI and the serum liver function of all research objects. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves of LV index was drawn.Results The LV measured value of cirrhosis group was148.65±28.98cm3, and the LV measured value of non-cirrhosis group was185.56±33.68cm3. The LVI of cirrhosis group(0.74±0.09) was lower than non-cirrhosis group(0.86±0.07), the differences was significant(P<0.05). LVI negatively correlated with the level of AST(r=-0.44, P<0.05), and positively correlated with PLT(r=0.47,P<0.05). The area was0.88below ROC curve of LVI. LVI at0.84was the best cut off value for diagnosis of hepatic cirrhosis, with the sensitivity and specificity were91%,83%, respectively.Conclusions LVI can reflect the change of LV in BA patients, and LVI can evaluate the degree of hepatic cirrhosis in BA patients accurately and reliably. So this simple and non-invasive test can be widely used in clinical practice.