Table 3.
Morphometric collagen content at each biopsy by stratum of silymarin use
| Baseline Biopsy | Biopsy 1 (year 1.5) | Biopsy 2 (year 3.5) | Overall P-value across repeated biopsies‡ | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||||||||
| Silymarin use | Mean (SD) | No. | P-value relative to never users† | Mean (SD) | No. | P-value relative to never users† | Mean (SD) | No. | P-value relative to never users† | |
| All patients | ||||||||||
| Never (No.=701) | 0.061 (0.061) | 361 | Referent group | 0.088 (0.079) | 358 | Referent group | 0.090 (0.085) | 271 | Referent group | Referent group |
| Former (No.=178) | 0.062 (0.058) | 113 | 0.82 | 0.089 (0.092) | 100 | 0.81 | 0.077 (0.087) | 69 | 0.15 | 0.93 |
| Current (No.=170) | 0.054 (0.056) | 84 | 0.17 | 0.068 (0.053) | 92 | 0.10 | 0.071 (0.069) | 69 | 0.061 | 0.037 |
|
| ||||||||||
| Fibrosis at baseline | ||||||||||
| Never (No.=421) | 0.039 (0.036) | 231 | Referent group | 0.070 (0.064) | 239 | Referent group | 0.069 (0.065) | 182 | Referent group | Referent group |
| Former (No.=104) | 0.037 (0.028) | 71 | 0.95 | 0.070 (0.088) | 64 | 0.38 | 0.064 (0.072) | 48 | 0.41 | 0.53 |
| Current (No.=96) | 0.031 (0.027) | 46 | 0.15 | 0.063 (0.057) | 58 | 0.25 | 0.043 (0.036) | 42 | 0.018 | 0.034 |
|
| ||||||||||
| Cirrhosis at baseline | ||||||||||
| Never (No.=280) | 0.101 (0.075) | 130 | Referent group | 0.124 (0.092) | 119 | Referent group | 0.134 (0.103) | 89 | Referent group | Referent group |
| Former (No.=74) | 0.105 (0.070) | 42 | 0.60 | 0.122 (0.089) | 36 | 0.97 | 0.107 (0.110) | 21 | 0.14 | 0.98 |
| Current (No.=74) | 0.081 (0.069) | 38 | 0.052 | 0.077 (0.045) | 34 | 0.023 | 0.115 (0.086) | 27 | 0.48 | 0.011 |
Abbreviations: SD, standard deviation; No, number.
Assessment of morphometric collagen content was limited to biopsies with at least 10 mm2 of tissue, including 558 biopsies at baseline, 550 biopsies at year 1.5, and 409 biopsies at year 3.5.
Mann-Whitney test for the difference between mean collagen content in former or current silymarin users relative to never users.
P-value for the overall effect of silymarin use on morphometric collagen content across repeated biopsies was assessed by repeated-measures analysis of variance assuming an autoregressive covariance structure. Time (baseline, biopsy 1, and biopsy 2) and silymarin use were included in the models as fixed effects.