Yes, there are promising blood tests that may soon reduce the need for a painful liver biopsy. BioPredictive, a French biotech company, has developed new noninvasive blood tests that could reduce the need for liver biopsies. FibroTest can detect liver fibrosis, and ActiTest can detect inflammation and necrosis within the liver.

Currently, a liver biopsy is seen as the gold standard for detecting disease progression in both hepatitis B and C. It is often thought to be mandatory for the management of hepatitis patients, especially for the staging of fibrosis (scarring) and viral activity (necrosis or cell destruction). These new tests, however, could reduce the number of liver biopsies performed by at least 50%, the company claims.

Although hepatitis C is the approved indication for FibroTest and ActiTest, physicians can actually order these tests for hepatitis B patients as well. Studies by Dr. Thierry Poynard ‘Journal of Hepatology; 39:2003’ have shown that these two tests were accurate markers of HBV-related viral activity and fibrosis when compared with liver biopsy results in 209 chronic hepatitis B patients.