IP-10 can be measured in dried plasma spots in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection

PLoS One. 2012;7(9):e45181. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0045181. Epub 2012 Sep 14.

Abstract

The chemokine IP-10 (CXCL10) is a candidate marker for hepatitis C virus (HCV) fibrosis monitoring. The aim of this proof-of-concept study is to assess if IP-10 measurements from dried plasma spots (DPS) are accurate in HCV-infected patients with either minimal or significant fibrosis. We measured IP-10 levels in plasma and DPS of 21 HCV-infected patients with cirrhosis and 19 patients with no/little fibrosis (determined with FibroScan). Cirrhotic patients had significantly higher levels of IP-10 compared to patients with minimal fibrosis. DPS and plasma measurements of IP-10 are comparable and the correlation was excellent (r(2) = 0.97, p<0.0001). The DPS based method for IP-10 detection performs well in HCV-infected patients with either minimal or significant fibrosis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Biomarkers / blood
  • Chemokine CXCL10 / blood*
  • Dried Blood Spot Testing*
  • Female
  • Hepatitis C, Chronic / blood
  • Hepatitis C, Chronic / complications
  • Hepatitis C, Chronic / diagnosis*
  • Humans
  • Liver Cirrhosis / blood
  • Liver Cirrhosis / diagnosis
  • Liver Cirrhosis / etiology
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • ROC Curve

Substances

  • Biomarkers
  • Chemokine CXCL10

Grants and funding

The work was supported by the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.