title: Noninvasive Measures of Liver Fibrosis and Severity of Liver Disease.
abstract: Determining the degree of fibrosis is an important step in the assessment of disease severity in patients with chronic liver disease. Liver biopsy has been the gold standard for estimating the extent of inflammation and fibrosis, although the procedure has limitations such as sampling error and variability. Noninvasive testing has been shown to be equally predictive in ruling out fibrosis or ruling in advanced fibrosis. Serum biomarkers and imaging-based tests have more limited predictive ability when classifying intermediate stages, but these tools can help identify which patients should receive antiviral treatment sooner and require ongoing cancer surveillance without the need for biopsy. Using a combination of serum markers and imaging tests may also be helpful in providing functional assessment of portal hypertension in patients with chronic liver disease.
authors.affiliation: Dr Lucero is an assistant professor of medicine in the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, New York. Dr Brown is the vice chair of Transitions of Care and the interim chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Weill Cornell Medical Center.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lucero
authors.affiliation: Dr Lucero is an assistant professor of medicine in the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, New York. Dr Brown is the vice chair of Transitions of Care and the interim chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Weill Cornell Medical Center.
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Brown
keywords: Fibrosis; diagnostic test; imaging; liver stiffness; noninvasive; prognosis