Insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 in patients with liver cirrhosis.

Aim of the study was to evaluate serum levels of insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 in patients with liver cirrhosis and to compare serum IGFBP-3 levels with other liver function tests. Fifty-one patients with liver cirrhosis were selected for our study. We measured IGFBP-3 (1.67+/-1.06 mg/l, mean+/-SD), albumin (32+/-8 g/l), prealbumin (0.22+/-0.14 g/l), AST (2.29+/-2.38 microkat/l), ALT (2.11+/-4.83 microkat/l) and cholinesterase (mean 78.6+/-45.2 microkat/l) in the serum. There was a significant positive correlation of serum IGFBP-3 with serum albumin and serum cholinesterase. The correlation coefficient was much lower between serum IGFBP-3 and serum prealbumin. There was no significant correlation between serum AST, ALT and IGFBP-3. Serum IGFBP-3 proves to be a better marker for the hepatic synthetic capacity than serum albumin or cholinesterase.