Fibrosis can occur in most organs and is characterised by excessive and progressive extracellular matrix deposition and destruction of normal tissue architecture and function. In many cases treatment options are limited. Fibrotic diseases are therefore associated with high morbidity and mortality. Tissue biopsies remain a key part of diagnosing fibrosis; however, due to their invasive nature, tissue biopsies are unsuitable for monitoring disease progression. In some cases, tissue biopsies carry an unacceptable risk of mortality to the patient. Furthermore, assessing fibrosis via tissue biopsy is severely limited by the heterogenetic nature of fibrotic diseases and suffers from both sampling bias and observer variation/bias. The search for less invasive methods of diagnosing and monitoring fibrosis has led to the identification of many new biomarkers, many of which can be measured in serum in a so-called 'liquid biopsy' or can be imaged using state-of-the-art imaging modalities. These approaches have the potential to dramatically improve the diagnosis and monitoring of disease, and improve the design of clinical trials in to novel fibrotic therapies. This review summarises some of the recent advances in identifying novel biomarkers to diagnose and monitor fibrosis non-invasively.

中文翻译：

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使用生物标志物无创评估纤维化的最新进展。

纤维化可发生在大多数器官中，其特征是过度和进行性的细胞外基质沉积以及正常组织结构和功能的破坏。在许多情况下，治疗选择是有限的。因此，纤维化疾病与高发病率和死亡率有关。组织活检仍然是诊断纤维化的关键部分；然而，由于其侵入性，组织活检不适合监测疾病进展。在某些情况下，组织活检会给患者带来不可接受的死亡风险。此外，通过组织活检评估纤维化受到纤维化疾病的异质性的严重限制，并且受到采样偏差和观察者变异/偏差的影响。对诊断和监测纤维化的侵入性较小的方法的探索导致发现了许多新的生物标志物，其中许多可以在所谓的“液体活检”中在血清中测量，或者可以使用最先进的技术进行成像成像方式。这些方法有可能显着改善疾病的诊断和监测，并改进新纤维化疗法的临床试验设计。这篇综述总结了一些在识别新的生物标志物以无创地诊断和监测纤维化方面的最新进展。并改进针对新型纤维化疗法的临床试验设计。这篇综述总结了一些在识别新的生物标志物以无创地诊断和监测纤维化方面的最新进展。并改进针对新型纤维化疗法的临床试验设计。这篇综述总结了一些在识别新的生物标志物以无创地诊断和监测纤维化方面的最新进展。