Abstract
Objective: the goal of this study was to see if miR-142 alone or with liver scores FIB-5 or AFP might be employed as an early sign in the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma. Methodology: In this study, there were 25 patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC), twenty-five patients with hepatitis C-induced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), and 25 healthy controls. A detailed medical history, a thorough physical examination, and laboratory testing such as a complete blood count, liver function tests, and abdominal ultrasound were all performed on all patients. RT-PCR was applied to define the expression pattern of miR-142. Results: The fold differences in miR-142 expression levels between the HCC and cirrhotic groups were statistically and significantly enhanced. The difference in AFP between the HCC and cirrhotic groups was not statistically significant. The AUC of the predicted HCC miR-142 was 0.89. Merging AFP with the anticipated miR-142 (AUC of 0.89), however, did not improve AFP. The AUC was 0.81 when the proposed FIB-5 cut-off of 1.40 was used to rule out advanced cirrhosis (P 0.051) combining the proposed HCC miR-142 with FIB-5 enhanced diagnostic effectiveness, with an AUC of 0.88. Conclusion: MiR-142, FIB-5, and AFP were found to be promising biomarkers for cirrhosis and HCC respectively.