Noninvasive Diagnosis of NAFLD and NASH.

The aim of this review is to outline emerging biomarkers that can serve as early diagnostic tools to identify patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and, among them, the subgroup of best candidates for clinical trials on emerging compounds. Regarding possible predictors of NAFLD, a number of studies evaluated a combination of serum biomarkers either available in routine practice (or investigational) or proprietary and expensive. So far, magnetic resonance imaging-derived proton density fat fraction (MRI-PDFF) appears to be the most accurate for fatty liver diagnosis.

Interleukin-28B genetic variants in untreated Italian HCV-infected patients: a multicentre study.

Background & Aims: Different prevalence of favourable IL28BCC genotype have been reported in studies performed in different countries around the world. Data on distribution of IL28B genotypes in healthy Italian subjects are lacking.

Methods: Studies on prospectively collected untreated chronic HCV-infected Italian patients led to conflicting results.