Non-invasive diagnosis of liver fibrosis: A review of current imaging modalities.

Hundreds of millions of patients are suffering from cirrhosis and other chronic liver diseases worldwide, and this public health problem continues to grow. It has been proven that liver fibrosis is reversible after the elimination of the etiology, especially in the early stage. Thus, early diagnosis of liver fibrosis is of vital importance for clinical treatment. Liver biopsy remains the gold standard for both diagnosis and staging of fibrosis, but is suboptimal, due in large parts to its invasive nature and sundry associated complications. To overcome this, a number of non-invasive diagnosis based on serum biomarkers or imaging modalities have been developed. While diagnosis based on serum biomarkers is cheaper and more acceptable to patients, almost none developed to date are liver-specific, and may engender a false positive error. The imaging modalities have evolved rapidly and are taking on more and more important roles in the diagnosis of liver fibrosis.