Liver transplantation is the only treatment available for patients with advanced stage of fibrosis.
QTL analysis identifies a susceptibility locus on chromosome 15 that significantly affects the stage of fibrosis and hydroxyproline levels.
The 1H NMR spectra of two patient's sera, with F4 (cirrhosis) and F1 stage of fibrosis are represented in Fig. 1a.
The ultimate individual outcome might depend, for example, on the stage of fibrosis progression, the size of the lesion and comorbid conditions such as diabetes and arteriosclerosis.
Variables considered were gender, age, weight, source of infection, stage of fibrosis according to the Scheuer scoring system [42], and serum levels of ALT, AST, and GGT.
We observed that 93% of normal control livers demonstrated no galectin-9 staining in the periportal regions, whereas virtually all the patients with HCV infection, regardless of grade of inflammation or stage of fibrosis, stained positively (Figure 2f).
The magnitude of apoptosis evaluated by the Tunel assay, caspase activation and the apoptotic index correlated with the severity of ALD, the degree of inflammation and stage of fibrosis [2].
We also analyzed the IFN-related genes expression pattern according to the grade of inflammation or stage of fibrosis, however, no significant differences was observed between the two (data not shown).
The stage of fibrosis was assessed semi-quantitatively.
The mean stage of fibrosis in genotype A patients (2.8) was significantly higher than the mean stage of fibrosis in genotype D patients (2.0) (P = 0.0179).
The stage of fibrosis and degree of inflammatory activity were evaluated by the Metavir score system.
