Comparison of noninvasive models with liver biopsy in staging liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infection

Hepatitis B virüs infection is a global public health problem which may cause hepatic cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. According to WHO databases, it is reported that approximately 2 billion people are infected with hepatitis B virus and 40 million people have chronic hepatitis B infection all around the world. Approximately, there are 1 million people who died of hepatocellular carcinoma and cirrhosis which developed on chronic hepatitis B infection. Hepatic fibrosis is an early finding of cirhosis. Knowing the fibrosis stage is one of the main parameters for the estimation of prognosis, determination of treatment indication and type of treatment. Liver biopsy is the gold standart method to evaluate hepatic fibrosis but, it has many limitations such as mortal complications and its cost. Therefore noninvasive methods have been developed by physcians in recent years. New research on estimation of liver fibrosis with noninvasive tools is steadily increasing. In the last decade, the list of noninvasive markers of liver fibrosis increased rapidly. In our study, we evaluated biopsy findings 158 patients with chronic hepatitis B, who applied to our gastroenterology department during the last 5 years. We used Lok index, Bonacini scoring system, fibro-Q index, FIB-4 index, HUI model, APRI, AAR, Forns and PAPAS indexes in our study to evaluate hepatic fibrosis. We screened the data of patients retrospectively and compared 10 noninvasive methods with liver biopsy findings. In our study, SPPS 15.0 is used for statistical analysis. Lok index is found to be the most effective noninvasive method to estimate hepatic fibrosis. AP index, RPR, FIB-4 and Forns indexes are also found to be effective models in our study. HBV DNA levels were correlated with HAI score and significant fibrosis. Gender, HBe Ag and HBe Ab status of the patients were not correlated with significant fibrosis Keywords: Chronic hepatitis B,fibrosis, noninvasive method.