PIIINP is a marker liberated into the circulation during soft tissue formation. PIIINP levels can be useful in monitoring growth hormone therapy in children and in providing prognostic information on cardiac disease.
It is also a good marker of hepatic fibrosis in psoriasis and liver disease and offers exceptional benefits to GPs and others involved in primary care diagnosis. It is now part of the European Guidelines for monitoring of psoriatic patients on methotrexate.
PIIINP has been used as a component of the Southampton Traffic Light System developed by Dr Nick Sheron, Senior Lecturer and Head of Clinical Hepatology at the University of Southampton, and his colleagues - a robust rules based medicine algorithm for the triaging of patients potentially at risk and in need of treatment. The system represents a rapid non-invasive test that can potentially detect early liver disease before current conventional markers. It combines the results of two established serum fibrosis markers – PIIINP (Procollagen III N-terminal peptide) and Hyaluronic Acid, plus a platelet count.
Find out more about the Southampton Traffic Light system by contacting us or by going to www.livertrafficlight.info.