Plasma des-r- Carboxyprothrombin and Hepatocellular Carcinoma: Study of Normal Range and Clinical Significance

Plasma des-r-carboxyprothrombin （DCP） was analyzed in 531 subjects, using RIA kit. Two groups consisted 285 cases of HCCs and 246 non-HCCs （138 healthy controls, 88 cirrhosis, 20 chronic persistent hepatitis）. The results were: （1）upon cumulative distribution, DCP value less than 200ng/ml was found in 91.4％ non-HCCs, of them including 95.7％ healthy controls and 100％ chronic persistent hepatitis. While DCP values above 200ng/ml was found in 61.75％ HGCs. Mean value of DCP in HCCs was significantly higher than those three groups of non-HCCs（p＜0.01）, and strongly suggested that DCP was valuable for screening of HCCs from other non-malignant hepatic leasions; （2） analysis of four DCP levels, obtained from the above four groups, suggested that DCP 200ng/ml is a rational and reliable value in the diagnosis of HCC, DGP＜163ng/ml（-） is negative and 163—199ng/ml（±） is a suspectable value; （3） when DCP≥200ng/ml, the diagnostic exponent, sensitivity, specificity, fulse positive rate., value in positive result were 0.5898±0.0336, 62.11％, 91.87％, 8.13％, 89.85％ respectively; （4） DCP levels in HCGs≤5cm and≥10cm/with metastasis were elevated in 57.14％ and 84％ respectively. When using DCP＞163ng/ml as （+） value, the diagnostic rate of HCC≤5cm increased to 73.8％; The mean value of DCP also corresponded well with the tumor size and grade; （5） the sensitivity of DCP in the diagnosis of HCC was increased to 80.35％ by simultaneous measurement of AFP.