Enhanced liver fibrosis test for the non-invasive diagnosis of fibrosis in patients with NAFLD: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The enhanced liver fibrosis test has been suggested as a non-invasive blood test to aid the diagnosis of severe liver fibrosis in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Our study results showed that the test has a high negative predictive value, especially in populations with low disease prevalence such as may be encountered in primary care, and so can exclude advanced and significant fibrosis in NAFLD patients. However, the positive predictive value in such populations is very low at approximately 0.07 when advanced disease prevalence is 5%. This implies that additional strategies are required to make a positive diagnosis of advanced disease in the general population and primary care settings.
Source: Journal of Hepatology - Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Source Type: research