The influence of alcoholic liver disease on serum PIVKA-II levels in patients without hepatocellular carcinoma

Prothrombin induced by vitamin K defi-ciency or antagonist II (PIVKA-II) is a widely used diagnostic marker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We evaluated the correlation between alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and serum PIVKA-II levels in chronic liver disease (CLD) patients. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 2,528 CLD patients without HCC. Among these patients, 76 exhibited serum high PIVKA-II levels of >125 mAU/mL (group 1). We categorized 76 control patients matched by age, sex, and the presence of liver cirrhosis from the remain-ing patients who were negative for serum PIVKA-II (group 2). Group 1 revealed increased antibiotic usage (23.7% vs 2.6%, p