Noninvasive means of diagnosing liver fibrosis in hepatitis C

Noninvasive means of diagnosing liver fibrosis in hepatitis C.

Liver biopsy is still considered the gold standard for staging fibrosis in chronic liver diseases. However, liver biopsy is an invasive procedure, and complications occur in 0.6%-5% of patients [1,2]. In addition, to perform the procedure there is a need for additional resources such as ultrasonography. Therefore, as a rule, patients undergoing liver biopsy are hospitalized for at least 6 hours...

Assessment of Liver Fibrosis: Noninvasive Means

Liver biopsy, owing to its limitations and risks, is an imperfect gold standard for assessing the severity of the most frequent chronic liver diseases chronic hepatitis C (HCV), B (HBV) non alcoholic (NAFLD) and alcoholic (ALD) fatty liver diseases. This review summarizes the advantages and the limits of the available biomarkers of liver fibrosis. Among a total of 2,237 references, a total of 1...

noninvasive evaluation of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis c

Noninvasive assessment of liver fibrosis by measurement of stiffness in patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Liver fibrosis is the main predictor of the progression of chronic hepatitis C, and its assessment by liver biopsy (LB) can help determine therapy. However, biopsy is an invasive procedure with several limitations. A new, noninvasive medical device based on transient elastography has been designed to measure liver stiffness. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of liver stiffness me...

Noninvasive Evaluation of Liver Fibrosis in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C

Only 20% of patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC) progress to cirrhosis (1). Progressive fibrosis is the hallmark of an unfavorable course and is related to several factors such as male gender, contracting the disease at an older age, features of the metabolic syndrome, iron overload, ethanol abuse, and co-infection with hepatitis B or human acquired immunodeficiency viruses. However, the cou...