Serum Biomarkers for Hepatic Fibrosis

I recently came across an article discussing the detection of serum biomarkers for hepatic fibrosis using a chemiluminescence immunoassay (see: China Medical Successfully Completes Development of Liver Fibrosis Diagnostic Reagents) Below is an excerpt from the article (boldface emphasis mine):

China Medical Technologies...today announced that it has successfully completed the development of four liver fibrosis diagnostic reagents that use enhanced chemiluminescence immunoassay ("ECLIA") technology...China Medical's four new liver fibrosis reagents are designed to measure hyaluronic acid ("HA"), laminin ("LN"), collagen type IV ("IV-COL") and procollagen type III N-peptide ("PIIINP") in human serum. The measurement of these four markers may be used to assess the degree of liver fibrosis and cirrhosis in chronic liver disease. Chronic infection with hepatitis B or hepatitis C virus can lead to long-term liver damage including fibrosis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer. "Measurement of liver fibrosis markers allows for a non-invasive, accurate and early means of detecting chronic liver disease," [according to a company spokesman]...China has very high number of hepatitis patients and there are few effective alternatives available in the market that help detect the level of fibrosis.

I can't comment on the scientific or clinical validity of the claims about this new assay but other effective approaches for assessing hepatic fibrosis are certainly welcome. You may also want to refer to an article (see: Fibrosure (Fibrotest–ActiTest) – Towards a Universal Biomarker of Liver Fibrosis) that discusses the FibroTest for the quantitative assessment of fibrosis and ActiTest for the quantitative assessment of necroinflammatory activity. Both of these tests are offered in the U.S. by LabCorp as combined assay called HCV-FibroSURE. This latter combination of biomarkers is described in the following way on the LabCorp web site:

HCV FIBROSURE uses a combination of six serum biochemical markers plus age and gender in a patented algorithm to determine the degree of liver fibrosis and the level of ongoing necroinflammatory activity. The test, which has been clinically available in Europe for the past two years, has been shown in several studies to enable quantitative, reproducible assessment of fibrogenic and necrotic activity in the liver of HCV patients.