Could near-infrared Raman spectroscopy be correlated with the METAVIR scores in liver lesions induced by hepatitis C virus?

The liver is responsible for several basic functions in human body how the syntheses of the most main proteins and degradation process of toxins, drugs and alcohols. In present days, the viral hepatitis C is one of the highest causes of chronic hepatic illness worldwide, affecting around 3% of the world population. The liver biopsy is considered the gold standard for diagnosing hepatic fibrosis; however, the biopsies may be questioned because of potential sampling error, morbidity, possible mortality and relatively high costs. Spectroscopy techniques such as Raman spectroscopy have been used for diagnosis of human tissues, with favorable results. Raman spectroscopy has been employed to distinguish normal from hepatic lesions through spectral features mainly of proteins, nucleic acids and lipids. In this study, eleven patients with diagnoses of chronic hepatitis C underwent hepatic biopsies having two hepatic fragments collected: one was scored through METAVIR system and the other one was submitted to near-infrared Raman spectroscopy using a dispersive spectrometer (830 nm wavelength, 300 mW laser power and 20 s exposure time). Five spectra were collected in each fragment and submitted to Principal Components Analysis (PCA). Results showed a good correlation between the Raman spectroscopy features and the stage of hepatic fibrosis and inflammation. PCA showed that samples with higher degree of fibrosis presented higher amount of protein features (collagen), whereas samples of higher degree of inflammation presented higher features of hemoglobin, in accordance to the expected evolution of the chronic hepatitis. It has been found an important biomarker for the beginning of hepatic lesion (quinone) with a spectral feature at 1595 cm(-1).