|
Several studies have shown the
correlation between ALT level and hepatic fibrosis to be either very weak, weaker than
that for either of the two histological inflammatory scores [7, 8, 61, 62], or
insignificant [63, 64]. The elevated ALT and AST levels and presence of severe piecemeal
necrosis were not identified as predictive in the cross-sectional studies, that had
identified other predictive factors, such as patient age, age at onset of infection, male
sex, and alcohol use as predictive factors [17, 18, 65, 66]. More so, in 20.5% of patients
with the Bonacini scores ranging from 3 to 7, the diagnosis of liver cirrhosis turned to
be an unexpected histological finding [19]. For this cohort, the diagnosis could be
established only by liver biopsy [19]. |