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Non-invasive markers of fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C patients
Minodora Dobreanu, Liviu S. Enache, Elena L. Enache
Abstract: Chronic hepatitis C has the potential to slowly progress towards the development of cirrhosis in an important number of patients infected with hepatitis C virus. Diagnosis of the stage of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C is essential for making a prognosis and deciding on antiviral therapy. The most commonly used method of assessing the stage of liver fibrosis is biopsy. Although the technique is well documented and generally safe, it still suffers from important drawbacks, such as invasiveness, sampling error, interpretation variability. During the latest years, extensive research has been conducted in the development of non-invasive markers that can predict the severity of liver fibrosis. Either simple scores, like APRI or FIB-4, or more complex ones, like FibroTest, have been developed. These are calculated on indirect (aspartate aminotransferase, alanin aminotransferase, platelets, prothrombin time) or specific (hyaluronic acid, metalloproteinases) markers that are usually used in combination. The development of algorithms using several scores further improves their diagnostic performance. Although there is still need for refinement, non-invasive models for liver fibrosis show promising results.
Keywords: liver fibrosis,non-invasive markers,chronic hepatitis C
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