Table 3.
Comparison of relative signal levels (mean ± SD) of discriminatory metabolites between study cohorts1
| Selected metabolites |
Study cohort (number of subjects in group) |
P value2 | ||||
| Metabolite | δ/ppm (multiplicity) of peak analysed | CTR (n = 7) | CHB (n = 46) | CIR (n = 47) | HCC (n = 42) | |
| Acetate | 1.92 (s) | 0.34 ± 0.03 | 0.57 ± 0.64 | 1.70 ± 2.14 | 1.24 ± 1.49 | 0.007 |
| Carnitine | 3.23 (s) | 0.57 ± 0.41 | 0.42 ± 0.22 | 0.44 ± 0.53 | 1.19 ± 1.04 | 0.000 |
| Citrate | 2.52 (d) | 1.49 ± 0.61 | 1.35 ± 0.61 | 1.19 ± 1.21 | 1.07 ± 0.46 | 0.005 |
| Creatine | 3.03 (s) | 1.34 ± 0.35 | 1.24 ± 0.38 | 1.07 ± 0.95 | 1.54 ± 1.82 | 0.007 |
| Creatinine | 3.04 (s) | 10.88 ± 1.30 | 10.06 ± 1.76 | 7.74 ± 3.00 | 5.85 ± 1.83 | 0.000 |
| DMA | 2.72 (s) | 2.14 ± 0.57 | 2.11 ± 0.58 | 1.95 ± 1.21 | 1.91 ± 0.45 | 0.022 |
| Formate | 8.46 (s) | 0.07 ± 0.03 | 0.07 ± 0.05 | 0.16 ± 0.16 | 0.16 ± 0.18 | 0.059 |
| Glycine | 3.56 (s) | 1.04 ± 0.39 | 0.84 ± 0.42 | 0.74 ± 0.38 | 0.79 ± 0.63 | 0.129 |
| Hippurate | 7.85 (d) | 0.99 ± 0.47 | 0.85 ± 0.47 | 0.44 ± 0.35 | 0.28 ± 0.30 | 0.000 |
| TMAO | 3.27 (s) | 1.79 ± 0.44 | 1.95 ± 0.77 | 1.62 ± 1.04 | 1.32 ± 0.75 | 0.000 |
1Percentage normalised metabolite signal level relative to total NMR signal in the region 0.50-9.50 ppm (excluding 4.50-6.40 ppm);
2
Significance for independent samples Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA test with pairwise multiple comparisons. CTR: Healthy controls; CHB: Chronic hepatitis-B related liver disease; CIR: Cirrhosis; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma.