Assessment of liver fibrosis before and after antiviral therapy by different serum marker panels in patients with chronic hepatitis C

Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2011; 33: 138–148 Summary Background Liver biopsy is the reference standard to assess liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C. Aim To validate and compare the diagnostic performance of non‐invasive tests for prediction of liver fibrosis severity and assessed changes in extracellular matrix markers after antiviral treatment. Methods The performances of Forns’ score, AST to platelet ratio index (APRI), FIB‐4 index and Enhanced Liver Fibrosis (ELF) score were validated in 340 patients who underwent antiviral therapy. These scores were determined 24 weeks after treatment in 161 patients. Results Forns’ score, APRI, FIB‐4 and ELF score showed comparable diagnostic accuracies for significant fibrosis [area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) 0.83, 0.83, 0.85 and 0.81, respectively]. To identify cirrhosis, FIB‐4 index showed a significantly better performance over APRI and ELF score (AUROC 0.89 vs. 0.83 and 0.82, respectively). ELF score decreased significantly in patients with sustained virological response (SVR) (P