Serum metabolites may be useful markers to assess vascular invasion and identify normal alpha-fetoprotein in hepatocellular carcinoma undergoing liver resection: a pilot study

Table 4 Clinical variables and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) observed serum metabolites with intensity differences associated with vascular invasion (VI) for hepatocellular carcinoma

Metabolites	Without VI	With VI	P value^a
Investigation cohort (n= 35)
Tumor size (cm)	3.47 ± 0.49	6.29 ± 1.22	0.047
AFP (ng/ml)	6541.91 ± 6486.76	30428.30 ± 30156.35	0.360
ICG-15 (%)	9.80 ± 1.10	9.11 ± 1.54	0.711
Formate	19.697 ± 3.23	37.592 ± 7.83	0.023
Validation cohort (n= 22)
Tumor size (cm)	3.80 ± 0.98	4.33 ± 0.95	0.710
AFP (ng/ml)	145.82 ± 87.38	39289.31 ± 39109.13	0.343
ICG-15 (%)	13.18 ± 2.42	9.35 ± 2.10	0.256
Formate^b	14.807 ± 1.48	18.776 ± 0.99	0.042

ISSN: 1477-7819