Evaluation Of Transient Elastography In Assessment Of Hepatic Fibrosis In Chronic Liver Diseases:

Maha Zein Elabedin Omar

Liver fibrosis is the result of chronic liver injury. In fibrotic liver there are quantitative and qualitative ECM (extra cellular matrix) changes and, the fibrosis appears to play a direct role in the pathogenesis of hepatocellular dysfunction, portal hypertension and leads to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). -Liver biopsy remains the gold standard method in the diagnosis and staging of liver fibrosis, but it is costly and carries a small risk for complications, in addition to sampling error, inter and intra — observer discrepancies in assessing hepatic fibrosis. Hence, there is a need to develop accurate, reliable and non invasive methods to assess the severity of hepatic fibrosis. Transient elastography (TE, fibroscan) is a novel non-invasive method that has been proposed for assessment of hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic liver diseases, by measuring liver stiffness.This work was done to evaluate the accuracy of transient elastography in assessment of hepatic fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease in comparison to liver biopsy.This study was carried out on 53 patients with chronic hepatitis C (HCV Ab positive and positive HCV RNA by PCR) attending the Hepatology, Gastroenterology and Infectious disease Department at Benha University Hospitals.