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Study Finds Noninvasive Blood Test for Liver Fibrosis May Alleviate Need for Liver Biopsies for Some Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C
Date:6/8/2009

nic HCV is the most common cause of liver fibrosis, a condition that can progress to liver cirrhosis or cancer. Physicians manage HCV infection based on assessments of the degree of a patient's liver fibrosis. Although liver biopsy is the gold standard for determining the degree of fibrosis in chronic HCV patients, it can cause pain, bleeding and, in rare cases, death. Biopsy also must be performed repeatedly in order to monitor fibrosis' reversal or progression. In addition, an estimated 15 to 30 percent of biopsies miss cirrhosis. Physicians typically give antiviral drug therapy to patients with significant fibrosis and monitor chronic HCV patients at low risk of developing fibrosis.

In recent years, techniques have emerged that calculate a chronic HCV patient's likelihood for fibrosis based on assessments of levels of biomarkers found in blood specimens. Most of these techniques employ an algorithm that incorporates levels of nonspecific biomarkers as well as the patient's age and gender. The Hepascore method combines assessments of hyaluronic acid (HA), a biomarker specific to liver fibrosis, with assessments of the nonspecific biomarkers bilirubin, gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), alpha2 macroglobulin (A2M), and age and gender.

Previous studies of Hepascore in populations in France and Australia have showed it is reliable at predicting different degrees of fibrosis in chronic HCV patients. The objective of the present study was to validate the Hepascore test in a U.S. population with chronic HCV infection, and to compare it with two indices that employ nonspecific biomarkers, aspartate aminotranaminase (AST)-platelet ratio index (APRI) and Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4). Three hundred and ninety one patients with chronic HCV infection undergoing liver biopsy were enrolled from the Liver Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. A reference range for a negative Hepascore was also determined from a study of 214 healthy v
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SOURCE Quest Diagnostics Incorporated
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