[DOWNLOAD] "Assessment of Liver Fibrosis: Can Serum Become the Sample of Choice?(Editorials)" by Clinical Chemistry * Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Assessment of Liver Fibrosis: Can Serum Become the Sample of Choice?(Editorials)
- Author : Clinical Chemistry
- Release Date : January 01, 2005
- Genre: Chemistry,Books,Science & Nature,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 166 KB
Description
Chronic hepatitis is a relatively common problem; worldwide, an estimated 350 million individuals are chronically infected with hepatitis B (HBV), 170 million are chronically infected with hepatitis C (HCV), and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is predicted to reach epidemic proportions with the rapidly increasing prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Chronic hepatitis causes relatively minor symptoms by itself, but it may progress to cirrhosis (the 10th leading cause of death in the United States) and hepatocellular carcinoma (the 3rd leading cause of cancer death world wide). Although exact figures are lacking, it is estimated that ~20%-30% of persons with chronic HBV or HCV will develop cirrhosis if untreated; however, successful treatment of HBV and HCV seems to prevent progression to cirrhosis and reduces the likelihood of or prevents development of hepatocellular carcinoma (1,2). There are two major components to chronic hepatitis: necroinflammatory activity and fibrosis. The laboratory finding most correlated with activity is release of hepatocyte cytoplasmic enzymes such as aspartate and alanine aminotransferases. Unfortunately, the feature that best correlates with likelihood of developing cirrhosis is fibrosis; there is no correlation between aminotransferase activities and fibrosis.