Aim: The albumin, bilirubin, and platelet (ABP) criteria was proposed to avoid screening endoscopy for detecting high-risk varices (HRV) and it has high diagnostic accuracy. We conducted the retrospective cross-sectional study to verify the diagnostic accuracy.
Methods: A total of 610 patients with advanced fibrosis were enrolled in the study. ABP criteria is defined as follows; albumin > 4.0g/dl, bilirubin < 22μmol/l, and platelet > 114,000/μl.
Results: Background liver disease were hepatitis C/hepatitis B/nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) /others:405 (66.4%) / 67 (10.5%) /78 (12.8%) /60 (10.3%). One hundred five patients (17.2%) had HRV. In multivariate analysis, serum bilirubin < 22μmol/l [hazard ratio (HR): 2.00, 95% confidence interval (95%CI): 1.2-3.4], albumin > 4.0g/dl (HR: 2.56, 95%CI: 1.7-3.8), and platelet > 114,000/μl (HR: 3.52, 95%CI: 2.1-5.8) levels were independently associated with no presence of HRV. When examined ABP criteria, 200 patients (32.8%) fulfilled the criteria, and 194 patients had no HRV (positive predictive value [PPV]: 97.0%) When classified by etiologies (hepatitis C/hepatitis B/nonalcoholic fatty liver disease), PPV were 97.7/100/92.0%, respectively.
Conclusions: ABP criteria is easy to examine because it uses only standard laboratory tests, and it can be available to screening patients who might avoid endoscopy regardless of etiologies.