Introduction: For diagnosis of staging of liver fibrosis, the liver biopsy is the only recognized gold standard technique. The aspartate transaminase to platelet ratio index (APRI) has been proposed as a noninvasive and readily available tool for the assessment of liver fibrosis.

Method: The present prospective study was carried out in the Department of Medicine, Muzaffarnagar Medical College, Muzaffarnagar.

Result: In this study, we have included 203 patients, out of which 72 % were male and 28% were female. Viral etiology noted in 48.3%, alcoholism in 5.9% and other etiology noted in 45.8%. With APRI cut-off 1 the specificity, sensitivity and positive predictive value to detect advanced fibrosis was 87%, 42%, 75% respectively.

Conclusion: The present showed that the APRI is a specific non-invasive biomarker to detect advanced fibrosis but liver elastography remains the best available non-invasive tool to diagnosis liver low grade and advanced fibrosis due to the poor sensitivity of these markers.

Keywords: APRI, liver fibrosis, Aspartate Transaminase, Platelet count.

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Dr Subodh Katariya

Professor, Department of Medicine, Muzaffarnagar Medical College, Muzaffarnagar (U.P.)