2015, Volume 8, Issue 3, pp 285 – 290

Quantification of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B virus infection

SCImago Journal & Country Rank

Issues

Special Issues

Authors and Affiliations

Correspondence to: Ioana Andreea Gheonea, MD Research Center of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Craiova, Romania 66 1 Mai Blvd., code 200638, Craiova, Romania Mobile phone: +40751 268 731, Fax: +40251 310 287, E-mail: digheonea@gmail.com

Abstract

Chronic hepatitis B virus infection (HBV) is considered a global public issue with more than 78.000 people per year dying of its evolution. With liver transplantation as the only viable therapeutic option but only in end-stage disease, hepatitis B progression may generally be influenced by various factors. Assessing fibrosis stage plays an important part in future decisions on the patients’ wealth with available antiviral agents capable of preventing fibrosis passing to an end-stage liver disease. Several methods have been taken into consideration as an alternative for HBV quantification status, such as imaging techniques and serum based biomarkers. Magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound, and elastography are considered non-invasive imaging techniques frequently used to quantify disease progression as well as patients future prognostic. Consequently, both direct and indirect biomarkers have been studied for differentiating between fibrosis stages. This paper reviews the current standings in HBV non-invasive liver fibrosis quantification, presenting the prognostic factors and available assessment procedures that might eventually replace liver biopsy.

Keywords

About this article

PMC ID: 4556907
PubMed ID: 26351528
DOI: 

Article Publishing Date (print): Jul-Sep 2015
Available Online: 

Journal information

ISSN Printing: 1844-122X
ISSN Online: 1844-3117
Journal Title: Journal of Medicine and Life

Copyright License: Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.


SCImago Journal & Country Rank

Issues

Special Issues