ABSTRACT:
Background: Early diagnosis of liver diseases especially hepatocellular carcinoma is very important. Cirrhosis is diagnosed clinically by using of laboratory analysis and imaging data, and liver biopsy. However, these methods have their limitations. These findings suggest the need for diagnostic biomarkers that could add to the sensitivity and accuracy. Serum Kallistatin may fall into this category of biomarkers as the liver represents the major site of synthesis and secretion of it and their levels reflect the synthetic function of liver. Objective: To assess serum Kallistatin and CCL4 levels in cases of liver cirrhosis due to any factor and hepatocellular carcinoma. Methods: Sixty patients who were included and classified into 30 patients with liver cirrhosis, 40 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. They were compared with 20 sex and age matched healthy individuals for control. Levels of serum kallistatin was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and serum cholinesterase was measured using colorimetric assay. Results: There was a highly significant decrease in serum Kallistatin and high significant increase of CCL4 in patients with liver cirrhosis when compared with control (P<0.000). However, there was a slight but not significant increase in kallistatin level in HCC group compared with control and significant increase in CCL4 level in HCC group compared with control. Conclusion: Both serum kallistatin and CCL4 can be used as reliable biomarkers for the diagnosis of, evaluation of the extent of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.