Population screening for liver fibrosis: Toward early diagnosis and intervention for chronic liver diseases - PubMed (original) (raw)

Review

. 2022 Jan;75(1):219-228.

doi: 10.1002/hep.32163. Epub 2021 Dec 10.

Pere Ginès 1 2 3 4, Laurent Castera 5 6 7, Frank Lammert 8 9 10, Isabel Graupera 1 2 3 4, Alina M Allen 12, Vincent Wai-Sun Wong 13, Phillipp Hartmann 14, Maja Thiele 15, Llorenç Caballeria 16, Robert J de Knegt 17, Ivica Grgurevic 18, Salvador Augustin 3 19 20, Emmanuel A Tsochatzis 21, Jörn M Schattenberg 22, Indra Neil Guha 23, Andrea Martini 24, Rosa M Morillas 3 20 25, Montserrat Garcia-Retortillo 26, Harry J de Koning 27, Núria Fabrellas 2 28, Judit Pich 29, Ann T Ma 1 2 4, M Alba Diaz 30, Dominique Roulot 31, Philip N Newsome 32 33, Michael Manns 8, Patrick S Kamath 12, Aleksander Krag 15; LiverScreen Consortium Investigators

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Review

Population screening for liver fibrosis: Toward early diagnosis and intervention for chronic liver diseases

Pere Ginès et al. Hepatology. 2022 Jan.

Abstract

Cirrhosis, highly prevalent worldwide, develops after years of hepatic inflammation triggering progressive fibrosis. Currently, the main etiologies of cirrhosis are non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and alcohol-related liver disease, although chronic hepatitis B and C infections are still major etiological factors in some areas of the world. Recent studies have shown that liver fibrosis can be assessed with relatively high accuracy noninvasively by serological tests, transient elastography, and radiological methods. These modalities may be utilized for screening for liver fibrosis in at-risk populations. Thus far, a limited number of population-based studies using noninvasive tests in different areas of the world indicate that a significant percentage of subjects without known liver disease (around 5% in general populations and a higher rate -18% to 27%-in populations with risk factors for liver disease) have significant undetected liver fibrosis or established cirrhosis. Larger international studies are required to show the harms and benefits before concluding that screening for liver fibrosis should be applied to populations at risk for chronic liver diseases. Screening for liver fibrosis has the potential for changing the current approach from diagnosing chronic liver diseases late when patients have already developed complications of cirrhosis to diagnosing liver fibrosis in asymptomatic subjects providing the opportunity of preventing disease progression.

© 2021 The Authors. Hepatology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.

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