Correlation of Laparoscopic Liver Biopsy to Elasticity Measurements (FibroScan) in Patients With Chronic Liver Disease

Elastography is a noninvasive method to assess liver fibrosis by measuring liver stiffness. Studies have compared elas-tography to percutaneous biopsy. Laparoscopic biopsy is associated with decreased sampling error compared to percutaneous biopsy, as laparoscopic biopsies are obtained from both liver lobes and gross nodu-larity can be visualized. Patients undergoing laparoscopic liver biopsy were enrolled. Gross liver appearance was assessed, and biopsy specimens were blindly evaluated by a pathologist. Elastography (FibroScan) was used to measure liver stiffness. 101 patients were examined. Fibrosis was related to elasticity (Spearman correlation r=0.63; P