Serum fibroblast growth factor 19 serves as a potential novel biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of study patients

Characteristics	CLD patients (n = 142)	HCC patients (n = 304)	p value
Age (year)^a	65 (14)	72 (14)	< 0.001
Sex (male/female)	84/58	213/91	0.023
Etiology (HBV/HCV/Others)	26/69/47	34/156/114	0.116
Liver damage (CH/LC)	66/76	52/252	< 0.001
AFP (ng/mL)^a	3.8 (3.1)	15.7 (112.7)	< 0.001
DCP (mAU/mL)^a	20 (9)	93 (1140)	< 0.001
AST (IU/L)^a	27 (23)	47 (44)	< 0.001
ALT (IU/L)^a	22 (28)	35 (32)	< 0.001
ALB (g/dL)^a	4.3 (0.5)	3.7 (0.7)	< 0.001
T-Bil (mg/dL)^a	0.9 (0.5)	0.9 (0.6)	0.612
PLT (× 10⁴/μL)^a	14.2 (10.2)	11.9 (9.7)	< 0.001
PT (%)^a	99 (21)	93 (24)	0.014
Child-Pugh (A/B/C)	125/13/4	246/49/9	0.137

^a Data are expressed as median (interquartile range)
Abbreviations, CLD chronic liver disease, HCC hepatocellular carcinoma, HBV hepatitis B virus, HCV hepatitis C virus, CH chronic hepatitis, LC liver cirrhosis, AFP alpha-fetoprotein, DCP des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin, AST aspartate aminotransferase, ALT alanine aminotransferase, ALB albumin, T-Bil total bilirubin, PLT platelet, PT prothrombin time