Table 1.

Basic characteristics of study participants.

	Cirrhosis	HCC	Healthy control	P value*
size	5	5	5
Gender (M:F)*	3:2	4:1	4:1
Race (CA:AA)*	3:2	4:1	3:2
Age (mean±std)	57±3.53	54±2.92	56.6±3.85	0.43
MELD (mean±std)	11±4.12	11.8±3.96		0.68
HCV	+	+	−
INR	1.26±3.70	1.34±0.25		0.59
Albumin (mg/L)	3.38±0.43	3.38±0.67		0.83
WBC (K/CMM)	5.86±2.54	4.80±1.73		0.35
ALT (IU/L)	62.40±49.35	112.40±55.80		0.21
AST (IU/L)	94.20±50.45	147.40±65.73		0.40

^*M:F=Male:Female; CA:AA=Caucasian:African-American; P value is based on non-parametric test (Wilcoxon-Mann Whitney test or Kruskal-Wallis test).