Fig. 1

Study design. Serum metabolites were quantified in cohort 1 (504 biopsy-proven HBV-CLD patients and 502 NC) and were used to identify candidate markers. After data analysis and feature selection, four metabolites were selected to compose our marker panel. Different machine models and clinical indices were compared using 10-fold cross-validation. Three RF models were constructed to diagnose CLD from NC (model 1), differentiate fibrosis vs. cirrhosis (model 2), and grade early fibrosis vs. advanced fibrosis (model 3) in cohort 1. These three were further validated in the independent HBV cohort 2