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vol 42 (11) November 1996
p 1843-1846
Ascitic Pseudouridine Discriminates Between Hepatocarcinoma-Derived
Ascites and Cirrhotic Ascites
Giuseppe Castaldo, Mariano Intrieri, Giuseppe Calcagno, Lucia Cimino, Gabriele
Budillon, Lucia Sacchetti, and Francesco Salvatore
Various biochemical indexes discriminate neoplastic from nonneoplastic ascites.
However, within the latter group, the distinction between cirrhotic ascites
and ascites caused by hepatocarcinoma (HC) is usually based on liver biopsy
or cytology. HC-derived ascites is included in the group of nonneoplastic ascites
because it is not associated with peritoneal spreading of neoplastic cells.
In 54 cases of cirrhotic ascites and 17 cases of HC ascites, all histologically
diagnosed, ascitic pseudouridine concentrations discriminated cirrhotic from
HC ascites. For example, using the cutoff value of 4.25 umol/L (obtained by
ROC curve analysis) resulted in a diagnostic sensitivity of 88.2% and a diagnostic
specificity of 90.8%. Moreover, in cirrhosis, the ascitic concentrations of
pseudouridine were lower than serum concentrations, and the two sets of values
were correlated; in HC, however, ascitic pseudouridine concentrations were higher
than serum concentrations, and the two were unrelated. These findings strongly
suggest that in cirrhotic patients ascitic pseudouridine derives from serum
by diffusion, whereas in HC patients the mechanism appears to be more complex.
Copyright ©1996 AACC - All Rights Reserved.
Reprinted with permission.
April 16, 1997
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