Key clinical point : High diastolic whole blood viscosity (WBV) may serve as a new independent factor associated with extrahepatic metastasis and poor survival in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).
Main finding: After adjusting for confounding variables, high diastolic WBV was independently associated with extrahepatic metastasis (adjusted odds ratio, 23.41; P < .001) and poor survival (adjusted hazard ratio, 3.81; P < .001) and significantly predicted extrahepatic metastasis at an optimal cutoff of 16 cP (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.768; P < .001).
Study details: Findings are from a pilot retrospective study including 181 patients with HCC, of which 148 were treatment-naïve having preserved liver function and 33 received nivolumab.
Disclosures: The study was sponsored by Young Medical Scientist Research Grant through the Daewoong Foundation and the Research Fund of Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea. The authors did not declare any conflict of interests.
Source: Han JW et al. PLoS ONE. 2021 Dec 2. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260311 .