Liver stiffness measurement is not a surrogate of disease progression of HCV patients with cirrhosis. HCV patients with cirrhosis should undergo the recommended follow-up, regardless of liver stiffness measurement.

Early diagnosis of acute mesenteric ischemia (AMI) remains a clinical challenge, and no biomarker has been consistently validated. We aimed to assess the accuracy of three promising circulating biomarkers for diagnosing AMI—citrulline, intestinal fatty acid-binding protein (I-FABP), and d-lactate. A cross-sectional diagnostic study enrolled AMI patients admitted to the intestinal stroke center and controls with acute abdominal pain of another origin. We included 129 patients—50 AMI and 79 controls. Plasma citrulline concentrations were significantly lower in AMI patients compared to the controls [15.3 μmol/L (12.0–26.0) vs. 23.3 μmol/L (18.3–29.8), p = 0.001]. However, the area under the receiver operating curves (AUROC) for the diagnosis of AMI by Citrulline was low: 0.68 (95% confidence interval = 0.58–0.78). No statistical difference was found in plasma I-FABP and plasma d-lactate concentrations between the AMI and control groups, with an AUROC of 0.44, and 0.40, respectively. In this large cross-sectional study, citrulline, I-FABP, and d-lactate failed to differentiate patients with AMI from patients with acute abdominal pain of another origin. Further research should focus on the discovery of new biomarkers.

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Background Severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is frequently associated with gastrointestinal manifestations. Herein we evaluated the interest in measuring the intestinal fatty acid-binding protein (I-FABP), a biomarker of intestinal injury, in COVID-19 patients. Methods Serum I-FABP was analyzed in 28 consecutive patients hospitalized for a PCR-confirmed COVID-19, in 24 hospitalized patients with non-COVID-19 pulmonary diseases, and 79 patients admitted to the emergency room for abdominal pain. Results I-FABP serum concentrations were significantly lower in patients with COVID-19, as compared to patients with non-COVID-19 pulmonary diseases [70.3 pg/mL (47–167.9) vs. 161.1 pg/mL (88.98–305.2), respectively, p = 0.008]. I-FABP concentrations in these two populations were significantly lower than in patients with abdominal pain without COVID-19 [344.8 pg/mL (268.9–579.6)]. I-FABP was neither associated with severity nor the duration of symptoms. I-FABP was correlated with polymorphonuclear cell counts. Conclusions In this pilot study, we observed a low I-FABP concentration in COVID-19 patients either with or without gastrointestinal symptoms, of which the pathophysiological mechanisms and clinical impact remain to be established. Further explorations on a larger cohort of patients will be needed to unravel the molecular mechanism of such observation, including the effects of malabsorption and/or abnormal lipid metabolism.