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(Journal Article) |
World journal of hepatology 10 (2): 231-245 (2018)
Digital liver biopsy: Bio-imaging of fatty liver for translational and clinical research.
Marcello Mancini
,
Paul Summers
,
Francesco Faita
,
Maurizia R Brunetto
,
Francesco Callea
,
Andrea De Nicola
,
Nicole Di Lascio
,
Fabio Farinati
,
Amalia Gastaldelli
,
Bruno Gridelli
,
Peppino Mirabelli
,
Emanuele Neri
,
Piero A Salvadori
,
Eleni Rebelos
,
Claudio Tiribelli
,
Luca Valenti
,
Marco Salvatore
,
Ferruccio Bonino
ABSTRACT
The rapidly growing field of functional, molecular and structural bio-imaging is providing an extraordinary new opportunity to overcome the limits of invasive liver biopsy and introduce a "digital biopsy" for in vivo study of liver pathophysiology. To foster the application of bio-imaging in clinical and translational research, there is a need to standardize the methods of both acquisition and the storage of the bio-images of the liver. It can be hoped that the combination of digital, liquid and histologic liver biopsies will provide an innovative synergistic tri-dimensional approach to identifying new aetiologies, diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for the optimization of personalized therapy of liver diseases and liver cancer. A group of experts of different disciplines (Special Interest Group for Personalized Hepatology of the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver, Institute for Biostructures and Bio-imaging of the National Research Council and Bio-banking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure) discussed criteria, methods and guidelines for facilitating the requisite application of data collection. This manuscript provides a multi-Author review of the issue with special focus on fatty liver.