Noninvasive markers of fibrosis in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: Validating the European Liver Fibrosis Panel and exploring simple markers

The detection of fibrosis within nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is important for ascertaining prognosis and the stratification of patients for emerging therapeutic intervention. We validated the Original European Liver Fibrosis panel (OELF) and a simplified algorithm not containing age, the Enhanced Liver fibrosis panel (ELF), in an independent cohort of patients with NAFLD. Furthermore, we explored whether the addition of simple markers to the existing panel test could improve diagnostic performance. One hundred ninety-six consecutively recruited patients from 2 centers were included in the validation study. The diagnostic accuracy of the discriminant scores of the ELF panel, simple markers, and a…