Skip to main content
. 2022 Apr 28;11(9):2479. doi: 10.3390/jcm11092479

Figure 2.

Figure 2

suPAR is associated with the presence of liver cirrhosis. Soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) is elevated in patients with liver cirrhosis (p < 0.001) (A). suPAR is linked to an increasing Child–Pugh score (CHILD) in patients with liver cirrhosis (p = 0.019; A–C: p = 0.047; B–C: p = 0.046; A–B: n.s.) (B). In line with this, according to Spearman rank correlation, suPAR increases with increasing model of end-stage liver disease (MELD) score (p > 0.001; r = 0.547) (C). Subdivision of groups with different fibrosis stages revealed an elevation in suPAR levels (p = 0.017; F1 vs. F4 p = 0.001; F1–F2: n.s.; F1–F3: n.s.;F2–F3: n.s.) (D). suPAR revealed a high accuracy for the discrimination of the presence of liver cirrhosis (area under the curve (AUC) 0.802 (95%CI: 0.702–0.902), which is comparable to previously validated noninvasive fibrosis markers such as the fibrosis-4 (FIB4) index (AUC 0.836; 95%CI (0.752–0.920) and aspartate transaminase-to-platelets ratio index (APRI) score (AUC 0.866; 95%CI (0.789–0.944). The combination of suPAR and APRI score further improved the diagnostic power for the discrimination of the presence of liver cirrhosis (AUC 0.859 (95%CI (0.780–0.938)) (E). Subdivision of our cohort into patients with no to mild fibrosis (F0–F2) and patients with a higher degree of fibrosis (F3–F4) demonstrated a lower AUC of 0.771 (95%CI (0.669–0.874) for suPAR. However, the AUC was still comparable to the FIB4 index (AUC 0.812; 95%CI (0.720–0.905) and APRI score (AUC 0.844; 95%CI (0.754–0.935) (F). Box plots are displayed, where the bold line indicates the median per group and the edges of the box are the first and third quartiles. The horizontal lines show minimum and maximum values of calculated nonoutlier values. The dots represent calculated outliners. Soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR). Child–Pugh Score (CHILD). Model of end-stage liver disease (MELD). Fibrosis-4 (FIB4) index. Aspartate transaminase-to-platelets ratio index (APRI). (* p < 0.05; *** p < 0.001).