Non-Invasive Markers for Hepatic Fibrosis

[Guest guest]

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-230X/11/91

Review

Non-Invasive Markers for Hepatic Fibrosis

Ancha Baranova , Priyanka Lal , Aybike Birerdinc and Zobair M Younossi

BMC Gastroenterology 2011, 11:91doi:10.1186/1471-230X-11-91

Published:

17 August 2011

Abstract (provisional)

With great advancements in the therapeutic modalities used for the treatment of

chronic liver diseases, the accurate assessment of liver fibrosis is a vital

need for successful individualized management of disease activity in patients.

The lack of accurate, reproducible and easily applied methods for fibrosis

assessment has been the major limitation in both the clinical management and for

research in liver diseases. However, the problem of the development of

biomarkers capable of non-invasive staging of fibrosis in the liver is difficult

due to the fact that the process of fibrogenesis is a component of the normal

healing response to injury, invasion by pathogens, and many other etiologic

factors. Current non-invasive methods range from serum biomarker assays to

advanced imaging techniques such as transient elastography and magnetic

resonance imaging (MRI). Among non-invasive methods that gain strongest clinical

foothold are FibroScan elastometry and serum-based APRI and FibroTest. There are

many other tests that are not yet widely validated, but are none the less,

promising. The rate of adoption of non-invasive diagnostic tests for liver

fibrosis differs from country to country, but remains limited. At the present

time, use of non-invasive procedures could be recommended as pre-screening that

may allow physicians to narrow down the patients population before definitive

testing of liver fibrosis by biopsy of the liver. This review provides a

systematic overview of these techniques, as well as both direct and indirect

biomarkers based approaches used to stage fibrosis and covers recent

developments in this rapidly advancing area.

The complete article is available as a provisional PDF. The fully formatted PDF

and HTML versions are in production.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-230x-11-91.pdf

[Guest guest]

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-230X/11/91

Review

Non-Invasive Markers for Hepatic Fibrosis

Ancha Baranova , Priyanka Lal , Aybike Birerdinc and Zobair M Younossi

BMC Gastroenterology 2011, 11:91doi:10.1186/1471-230X-11-91

Published:

17 August 2011

Abstract (provisional)

With great advancements in the therapeutic modalities used for the treatment of

chronic liver diseases, the accurate assessment of liver fibrosis is a vital

need for successful individualized management of disease activity in patients.

The lack of accurate, reproducible and easily applied methods for fibrosis

assessment has been the major limitation in both the clinical management and for

research in liver diseases. However, the problem of the development of

biomarkers capable of non-invasive staging of fibrosis in the liver is difficult

due to the fact that the process of fibrogenesis is a component of the normal

healing response to injury, invasion by pathogens, and many other etiologic

factors. Current non-invasive methods range from serum biomarker assays to

advanced imaging techniques such as transient elastography and magnetic

resonance imaging (MRI). Among non-invasive methods that gain strongest clinical

foothold are FibroScan elastometry and serum-based APRI and FibroTest. There are

many other tests that are not yet widely validated, but are none the less,

promising. The rate of adoption of non-invasive diagnostic tests for liver

fibrosis differs from country to country, but remains limited. At the present

time, use of non-invasive procedures could be recommended as pre-screening that

may allow physicians to narrow down the patients population before definitive

testing of liver fibrosis by biopsy of the liver. This review provides a

systematic overview of these techniques, as well as both direct and indirect

biomarkers based approaches used to stage fibrosis and covers recent

developments in this rapidly advancing area.

The complete article is available as a provisional PDF. The fully formatted PDF

and HTML versions are in production.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-230x-11-91.pdf