Aspartate transaminase to platelet ratio index (APRI) to assess liver fibrosis in patients with chronic liver disease

Liver biopsy has several disadvantages, including poor patient compliance, sampling error, limited usefulness for follow up, and poor intra- and interobservation agreements . Considering these limitations, in the last decade clinical investigators have been searching for noninvasive methods to obtain accurate information about the fibrosis stage in patients with chronic hepatitis C. Accordingly, a noninvasive diagnostic test for liver fibrosis should be simple, available to wide audiences at limited expense, able to accurately identify disease stage, and sensitive enough to track changes in fibrosis induced by the natural course of disease progression or by therapy.