Tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) in chronic active hepatitis and mild liver diseases.

Tissue polypeptide antigen (TPA) is a non-specific tumor marker with a broad reactivity. Increases in TPA are also observed in benign liver diseases. We conducted this study to evaluate the usefulness of TPA serum level determination in 15 patients with chronic active hepatitis (CAH) and in 30 patients with mild liver diseases (MLD) diagnosed at the time of evaluation. TPA levels were abnormal in 73.3% of CAH patients and in 40% of MLD patients. CAH patients had significantly higher TPA levels than MLD patients (p = 0.006). There was a significant correlation between TPA and ASAT (r = 0.581 p < 0.00001), suggesting that cytolysis plays an important role in the increase in TPA. A TPA value of twice the normal level will unlikely be due to MLD (specificity 90%). TPA can be used in the clinical characterization of these patients and in the selection of patients for biopsy.