Chronic liver diseases of differing etiologies are among the leading causes
of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Establishing accurate staging of liver disease is
very important for enabling both therapeutic decisions and prognostic evaluations. A
liver biopsy is considered the gold standard for assessing the stage of hepatic fibrosis,
but it has many limitations. During the last decade, several noninvasive markers for
assessing the stage of hepatic fibrosis have been developed. Some have been well
validated and are comparable to liver biopsy. This chapter will focus on the various
noninvasive biochemical markers used to stage liver fibrosis.
Keywords: AAR, APRI, Biomarkers, Collagen, Cirrhosis, Chronic liver diseases,
ELF, FIB-4, Fibrosis, FibroIndex, FibroMeter, FibroQ, FibroTest, Fibrospect, Forns,
HepaScore, PGA, SHASTA, YKL-40, Hyaluronic acid, Laminin, Liver biopsy,
Metalloproteinases, Procollagen, Transforming growth factor.
