title: [Application of a refined fibrosis staging system to evaluate therapeutic efficacy in chronic viral hepatitis].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To generate a refined staging system of fibrosis in chronic viral hepatitis and to assess its accuracy and sensitivity for evaluating therapeutic efficacy of anti-fibrosis drug treatments.
  
  
  METHODS
  A refined fibrosis staging system was established according to the detailed characteristics of progressive fibrosis. A total of 396 liver puncture biopsy specimens were collected from patients before and after anti-fibrosis therapy and used to evaluate the refined staging system. According to the original fibrosis staging system and refined fibrosis staging system, fibrosis staging differences from before and after treatment were analyzed by Chi-squared test and paired-samples t-test respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The refined fibrosis staging system detected significant changes in fibrosis stage that occurred in response to treatment (before treatment: 6.55 +/- 2.93 vs. after treatment: 6.19 +/- 2.945, P less than 0.01). However, the original (unrefined) staging system was unable to differentiate therapy-related changes in fibrosis stage (x2= 3.144, P = 0.534).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The newly-developed refined fibrosis staging system was able to effectively evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of anti-fibrosis drug treatment and performed better than the original staging system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Beijing Ditan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100015, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Ying
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Teng
authors.forename: Xin-Gang
authors.initials: XG
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Tai-Ling
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D001707:Biopsy, Needle; D006521:Hepatitis, Chronic; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis