False-negative Hepatobiliary Scintigraphy for Biliary Atresia

Novel NIR-II fluorescent probes for biliary atresia imaging

Biliary atresia is a rare infant disease that predisposes patients to liver transplantation and death if not treated in time. However, early diagnosis is challenging because the clinical manifestations and laboratory tests of biliary atresia overlap with other cholestatic diseases. Therefore, it is very important to develop a simple, safe and reliable method for the early diagnosis of biliary atresia. Herein, a novel NIR-II fluorescence probe, HZL2, with high quantum yield, excellent biocompatibility, low cytotoxicity and rapid excretion through the liver and gallbladder was developed based on the oil/water partition coefficient and permeability. A simple fecal sample after injection of HZL2 can be used to efficiently identify the success of the mouse model of biliary atresia for the first time, allowing for an early diagnosis of the disease. This study not only developed a simple and safe method for the early diagnosis of biliary atresia with great potential in clinical translation but also provides a research tool for the development of pathogenesis and therapeutic medicines for biliary atresia.

The Value of Hepatic Scintigraphy in the Diagnosis of Biliary Atresia

Introduction

Biliary Atresia (BA) requires prompt diagnosis and surgical intervention to optimize its outcome. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of EHIDA in distinguishing between BA and other causes of cholestatic jaundice.

Methods

This was a retrospective study of all patients who underwent EHIDA in a tertiary center from 1997 to 2019. The sensitivity, specificity, Negative Predictive Value (NPV) and Positive Predictive Value (PPV) of EHIDA were evaluated. Factors that can potentially affect its accuracy were also analyzed.

Results

During the study period, 93 patients aged 10 to 110 days with cholestasis and suspected BA underwent EHIDA. The sensitivity and NPV were 91.2 and 85.3% while specificity and PPV were 80.6 and 88.1%. These results suggested that EHIDA is suboptimal in both diagnosing or excluding BA. Out of 59 patients who showed no tracer activities in the intestines after 24 h, 56 were subjected to surgical exploration and 52 (92.9%) were eventually diagnosed BA. The accuracy of EHIDA scan were different by the maturity of the patient, age at testing and severity of cholestasis.

Conclusions

EHIDA has a limited accuracy and surgical exploration remains the gold standard to establish the diagnosis of BA. Potential confounding factors that may affect the accuracy of EHIDA were identified but require further studies with larger sample sizes to validate.

Role of hepatobiliary scintigraphy with different semi-quantitative parameters along with histopathological scoring in differentiating biliary atresia from neonatal hepatitis

Background

Biliary atresia (BA) and neonatal hepatitis (NH) are the two major causes of neonatal cholestasis (NC). However, both conditions had entirely different therapeutic schedule and prognosis. Considering BA as a surgical emergency, it is pretty important to accurately differentiate the two entities. The aim of the study is to evaluate the diagnostic utility of hepatobiliary scintigraphy (HBS) using a semi-quantitative technique as well as 15-point histopathological scoring system in differentiating BA from NH.

Results

The sensitivity, specificity, and overall accuracy of HBS in the diagnosis of BA was 90.5%, 80%, and 83.6%, respectively. The median values of kidney-liver ratio (KLR), intestinal-liver ratio (ILR), and background-liver ratio (BLR) were significantly higher in patients with BA, while that of the liver-kidney ratio (LKR) was significantly lower in cases with BA. Moreover, KLR had the largest area under curve (AUC); advocates it to be the best of the semi-quantitative parameters that can predicts BA. Histopathological scoring using a cutoff point ≥ 7 was helpful in discriminating BA from NH with 85.7% sensitivity, 95% specificity and 91.8% accuracy.

Conclusions

HBS is a non-invasive diagnostic tool frequently used in diagnosis of BA, yet it has a relatively low specificity. To overcome this challenge, we kindly recommend the use of semi-quantitative parameters that could possibly improve the accuracy of HBS for diagnosing BA. Additionally, the use of 15-point scoring for liver biopsy was useful.

Development and validation of bile acid profile-based scoring system for identification of biliary atresia: a prospective study

BACKGROUND

Early distinguishing biliary atresia from other causes of infantile cholestasis remains a major challenge. We aimed to develop and validate a scoring system based on bile acid for identification of biliary atresia.

METHODS

In a prospective study, a total of 141 infants with cholestasis were enrolled in two sets (derivation cohort, n = 66; validation cohort, n = 75) from 2014 to 2018. Variables with significant difference between biliary atresia and non-biliary atresia infants were selected in the derivation cohort. Then, a scoring system including those variables was designed and validated.

RESULTS

Among 66 patients in the derivation cohort, 34 (51.5%) had biliary atresia. A scoring system was proposed with the following variables: glycochenodeoxycholic acid/chenodeoxycholic acid, clay stool, and gamma-glutamyl transferase. The total score ranged from 0 to 41, and a cutoff value of 15 identified biliary atresia with an area under receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.87 (95% confidence interval, 0.77-0.94), sensitivity of 85.3%, and specificity of 81.3% in the derivation cohort; these values were also confirmed in a validation cohort with a sensitivity of 90.0% and specificity of 80.0%.

CONCLUSIONS

The proposed simple scoring system had good diagnostic accuracy for estimating the risk of biliary atresia in infants with cholestasis.