[Assessment of hepatic injury in patients with chronic viral hepatitis]

The management and prognosis of chronic viral hepatitis greatly depend on the extent and progression of liver fibrosis. Although liver biopsy is still considered as the gold standard to evaluate hepatic fibrosis, it is an invasive procedure with rare but potentially severe complications. It is also prone to sampling errors. These limitations have stimulated the search for new noninvasive approaches. A number of noninvasive techniques such as indirect or direct markers and measurement of liver stiffness using transient elastography have been proposed for the assessment of hepatic fibrosis. The performance of simple tests derived from routine laboratory parameters appears to be similar to that of more complex and expensive fibrosis panels. Transient elastography seems to be more accurate than blood tests for diagnosing cirrhosis. The goal of disease specific, accurate and sensitive markers of fibrosis is worth the effort. The true success in such an attempt can be characterized as hopeful; however, these noninvasive methods can be anticipated to become an important tool in clinical practice.