Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2014 Jul 7;20(25):8018-23.
doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i25.8018.

Liver fibrosis markers in alcoholic liver disease

Lech Chrostek  1 , Anatol Panasiuk  1
Affiliations
Review

Liver fibrosis markers in alcoholic liver disease

Lech Chrostek et al. World J Gastroenterol. .

Abstract

Alcohol is one of the main factors of liver damage. The evaluation of the degree of liver fibrosis is of great value for therapeutic decision making in patients with alcoholic liver disease (ALD). Staging of liver fibrosis is essential to define prognosis and management of the disease. Liver biopsy is a gold standard as it has high sensitivity and specificity in fibrosis diagnostics. Taking into account the limitations of liver biopsy, there is an exigency to introduce non-invasive serum markers for fibrosis that would be able to replace liver biopsy. Ideal serum markers should be specific for the liver, easy to perform and independent to inflammation and fibrosis in other organs. Serum markers of hepatic fibrosis are divided into direct and indirect. Indirect markers reflect alterations in hepatic function, direct markers reflect extracellular matrix turnover. These markers should correlate with dynamic changes in fibrogenesis and fibrosis resolution. The assessment of the degree of liver fibrosis in alcoholic liver disease has diagnostic and prognostic implications, therefore noninvasive assessment of fibrosis remains important. There are only a few studies evaluating the diagnostic and prognostic values of noninvasive biomarkers of fibrosis in patients with ALD. Several noninvasive laboratory tests have been used to assess liver fibrosis in patients with alcoholic liver disease, including the hyaluronic acid, FibroTest, FibrometerA, Hepascore, Forns and APRI indexes, FIB4, an algorithm combining Prothrombin index (PI), α-2 macroglobulin and hyaluronic acid. Among these tests, Fibrotest, FibrometerA and Hepascore demonstrated excellent diagnostic accuracy in identifying advanced fibrosis and cirrhosis, and additionally, Fibrotest was independently associated with survival. Therefore, the use of biomarkers may reduce the need for liver biopsy and permit an earlier treatment of alcoholic patients.

Keywords: Alcoholic liver disease; Liver fibrosis markers.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Lieber CS. Medical disorders of alcoholism. N Engl J Med. 1995;333:1058–1065. - PubMed
    1. Lieber CS. Alcoholic liver injury: pathogenesis and therapy in 2001. Pathol Biol (Paris) 2001;49:738–752. - PubMed
    1. Teli MR, Day CP, Burt AD, Bennett MK, James OF. Determinants of progression to cirrhosis or fibrosis in pure alcoholic fatty liver. Lancet. 1995;346:987–990. - PubMed
    1. Naveau S, Raynard B, Ratziu V, Abella A, Imbert-Bismut F, Messous D, Beuzen F, Capron F, Thabut D, Munteanu M, et al. Biomarkers for the prediction of liver fibrosis in patients with chronic alcoholic liver disease. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2005;3:167–174. - PubMed
    1. Worner TM, Lieber CS. Perivenular fibrosis as precursor lesion of cirrhosis. JAMA. 1985;254:627–630. - PubMed