Liver biopsy is an important part of the evaluation of patients with a variety of liver diseases.
Besides establishing the diagnosis, the biopsy is often used to assess the severity of the
disease in terms of both grade and stage. The stage in most chronic liver diseases relates to
the degree of scarring with the end stage being cirrhosis with its clinical complications. The
grade relates to the severity of the underlying disease process, with features that vary with
the pathogenetic mechanisms. Chronic viral hepatitis has been the object of the most …