ALB and tuberculosis: After adjustments for confounding factors including age, gender, BMI, and clinical variables consisting of AST, ALT, ALP, TB, DB, and albumin, an elevation in circulating COMP levels was shown to be independently related to increased values of liver stiffness (β-coefficient = 0.33; 95% CI 0.13 to 0.52; P = 0.002) (Table 2).