MSTN and hepatocellular carcinoma: For the multivariate Cox analyses, age, gender, platelet counts, and serum myostatin levels were found to be independent risk factors for HCC development (HR for age 1.03, 95% CI 1.01–1.06, p = 0.004; HR for gender 2.79, 95% CI 1.01–7.75, p = 0.04; HR for platelet counts 0.996, 95% CI 0.992–0.999, p = 0.03; and HR for serum myostatin 1.18, 95% CI 1.12–1.24, p < 0.001; Table 2).