Patent ID: 6631330
Filing Date: 2003-10-07
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
A method for diagnosis of liver fibrosis and/or presence of liver necroinflammatory lesions in a patient comprising the steps of:a) studying at least 4 biochemical markers by measuring the values of their concentration in the serum or plasma of said patient, wherein said markers are chosen from the group consisting of &agr;2-macroglobulin, AST (aspartate aminotransferase), ALT (alanine aminotransferasc), GGT (gammaglutamyl transpeptidase), &ggr;-globulin, total bilirubin, albumin, &agr;1-globulin, &agr;2-globulin, haptoglobin, &bgr;-globulin, apoA1, IL-10, TGF-&bgr;1, apoA2, and apoB; b) combining said values through a logistic function including said markers in order to obtain an end value, wherein said logistic function is obtained through the following method: i) classification of a cohort of patients in different groups according to the extent of their disease; ii) identification of factors which differ significantly between these groups by unidimensional analysis; iii) logistic regression analysis to assess the independent discriminative value of markers for the diagnosis of fibrosis and/or liver necroinflammatory lesions; iv) construction of the logistic function by combination of these identified independent factors; and c) analyzing said end value of said logistic function in order to determine the presence of liver fibrosis and/or liver necroinflammatory lesions in said patient.