Liver biopsy: The best, not the gold standard

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Fibrosis, the hallmark of chronic liver diseases, is one of the major deleterious processes associated with chronic hepatitis C. Staging of fibrosis relies on an evaluation of several histological features including assessment of extent of the extracellular matrix deposit, the localization of the deposits within the liver lobule and changes in lobular architecture. These features are then integrated into a semiquantitative scoring system. Histological staging of fibrosis has gained acceptance as a major element in evaluation of liver damage in hepatitis C.