Noninvasive Methods to Assess Hepatic Fibrosis

Researchers have extensively evaluated noninvasive techniques for assessing hepatic fibrosis, but an optimal method has yet to emerge. For example, the performance of serum biomarkers has been only fair for detecting moderate-to-severe fibrosis, with 25% to 40% of all results being indeterminate. Now, three new studies describe the use of imaging techniques that identify physical properties related to hepatic fibrosis.

In the first study, researchers in Taiwan assessed the ability of duplex Doppler ultrasonography (DDU) to predict advanced hepatic fibrosis (≥stage 2 fibrosis) and cirrhosis in 503 patients who were infected with hepatitis C virus and had liver biopsy data available. For each patient, two ultrasonographers measured the mean ve…