correlation between clinical data and pathological stage in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis: a study of 54 cases

ObjectiveTo investigate the correlation between clinical data and pathological stage in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) and to provide guidance for clinical diagnosis and treatment. MethodsThe clinical data of 54 PBC patients were collected for analyzing the correlation between the clinical data and pathological stage. The clinical data included biochemical parameters, immunological markers, and autoantibodies. Biopsy of the liver was used for the pathological staging of PBC. For the continuous data of normal distribution, analysis of variance was applied for comparisons between groups; for continuous data of skewed distribution, Wilcoxon rank sum test was used. For categorical data, chi-square test was used. Correlation analysis was performed by Pearson correlation and logistic regression. ResultsAmong the 54 patients, the male-to-female ratio was 1∶5; the mean age was 48.9±9.3 years; pathological stage Ⅰ was identified in 15 cases, stage Ⅱ in 18 cases, stage Ⅲ in 12 cases, and stage Ⅳ in 9 cases, and patients with stage Ⅳ disease were significantly older than the other patients (P＜0.05). Total bilirubin (TBil), alkaline phosphatase, prothrombin time, IgA, IgG, and SP200 were positively correlated with pathological stage (r=0.592, 0.343, 0.281, 0.388, 0.274, and 0.320, respectively, P＜0.05), while a negative correlation was found between albumin and pathological stage (r=-0.569, P=0.000). Multivariate analysis revealed an independent correlation between TBil level and pathological stage (P=0.039). Patients with the same pathological stage might have different clinical stages, while those with the same clinical stage might have different pathological stages. ConclusionsThe same pathological stage may appear in different clinical stages. TBil level is an independent predictive factor for pathological stage in PBC patients.