Levels of serum OPN in patients with chronic viral hepatitis C.

<p>(<b>A</b>) The circulating levels of OPN were measured in the serum of 86 patients with chronic hepatitis C (25 F1, 34 F2, 19 F3, 8 F4) and analyzed according to the stage of fibrosis. Results were expressed as the median (25^th, 75^th percentile). The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare the 4 groups F1, F2, F3 and F4: <i>P</i><0.001. The Mann-Whitney test compared the two groups: &, <i>P</i>≤0.048, compared with F1; #, <i>P</i>≤0.026, compared with F2. Correlation between the serum OPN level with hepatic fibrosis was analyzed using the Spearman's rank correlation test. (<b>B</b>) The areas under the ROC curves are shown for the performance of serum OPN levels in estimating significant fibrosis (F≥2) or advanced fibrosis (F≥3) in this cohort.