Open AccessLiver biopsy for histological assessment: The case in favor
Author(s) -
Khalid Alswat,
Khalid Mumtaz,
Wasim Jafri
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
the saudi journal of gastroenterology/saudi journal of gastroenterology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.608
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1998-4049
pISSN - 1319-3767
DOI - 10.4103/1319-3767.61245
Subject(s) - medicine , liver biopsy , gold standard (test) , biopsy , pathology , radiology , sampling (signal processing) , fibrosis , clinical practice , sampling error , bile duct , surgery , computer science , statistics , mathematics , filter (signal processing) , family medicine , observational error , computer vision
Liver biopsy (LB) is the gold standard method for assessment of liver histology. It provides valuable, otherwise unobtainable information, regarding the degree of fibrosis, parenchymal integrity, degree and pattern of inflammation, bile duct status and deposition of materials and minerals in the liver. This information provides immense help in the diagnosis and prognostication of a variety of liver diseases. With careful selection of patients, and performance of the procedure appropriately, the complications become exceptionally rare in current clinical practice. Furthermore, the limitations of sampling error and inter-/intra-observer variability may be avoided by obtaining adequate tissue specimen and having it reviewed by an experienced liver pathologist. Current noninvasive tools are unqualified to replace LB in clinical practice in the face of specific limitations for each tool, compounded by a poorer performance towards the assessment of the degree of liver fibrosis, particularly for intermediate stages.