Accuracy of Noninvasive Scoring Systems in Assessing Liver Fibrosis in Patients with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Background/Aims: Several noninvasive scoring systems have been developed to determine the risk of advanced fibrosis in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We examined the diag-nostic accuracy of the fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) score and NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS) in patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD. Methods: For this meta-analysis, various databases including PubMed (MEDLINE), EMBASE, OVID Medline and the Cochrane Library were systematically searched. After the acquired ab-stracts were reviewed by two investigators, manuscripts were chosen for a full-text examination. Results: Thirty-six studies evaluating biopsy-proven NAFLD were selected for meta-analysis. A total of 14,992 patients were analyzed. The lower cutoff sensitivity of the FIB-4 score predicting histological fibrosis stage 3 or more (>_F3) was 69%, with specificity of 64%, positive likelihood ratio (LR+) of 1.96, and negative likelihood ratio (LR-) of 0.47. The low baseline sensitivity of the NFS score predicting >_F3 was 70%, with a specificity of 61%, LR+ of 1.83, and LR- of 0.48. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) values of the FIB-4 score predicting >_F3 and >_F2 were 76% and 68%, respectively. The AUC values of the NFS score predicting >_F3 and >_F2 were 74% and 60%, respectively. Conclusions: The FIB-4 or NFS test can be used to predict the degree of liver fibrosis in NAFLD, and the diagnostic accuracy resulted as relatively high in fibrosis stages of F3 or higher. (Gut Liver, Published online February 23, 2022)