Contemporary assessment of hepatic fibrosis

Alan Bonder; Elliot B Tapper; Nezam H Afdhal

doi:10.1016/j.cld.2014.09.007

Contemporary assessment of hepatic fibrosis

Clin Liver Dis. 2015 Feb;19(1):123-34. doi: 10.1016/j.cld.2014.09.007. Epub 2014 Oct 14.

Authors

Alan Bonder¹, Elliot B Tapper¹, Nezam H Afdhal²

Affiliations

¹ Liver Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
² Liver Center, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: nafdhal@bidmc.harvard.edu.

PMID: 25454300
DOI: 10.1016/j.cld.2014.09.007

Abstract

Newer noninvasive tests have begun to replace liver biopsy for staging purposes. The clinician must evaluate these tools and apply them to individual patients. None of these modalities give the exact same staging of fibrosis as a liver biopsy, but they are excellent tools for risk stratification. Still, it should be recognized that there are disease-specific issues with different utilizations and cutoffs for different clinical diseases. This article provides a framework for incorporating the use of serum biomarkers and elastography-based approaches to stage fibrosis into clinical practice. This review also covers recent developments in this rapidly advancing area.

Keywords: Cirrhosis; Hepatitis; Liver biopsy; Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Alanine Transaminase / blood
Aspartate Aminotransferases / blood
Cholestasis / complications
Coinfection / complications
Elasticity Imaging Techniques
HIV Infections / complications*
Hepatitis B, Chronic / complications
Hepatitis C, Chronic / complications*
Humans
Liver Cirrhosis / blood*
Liver Cirrhosis / diagnosis*
Liver Cirrhosis / etiology
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease / complications
Platelet Count

Substances

Aspartate Aminotransferases
Alanine Transaminase