الفهرس 
introduction and aim of the workOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Conventional biochemical and serological tests are of little value in the diagnosis of the degree of fibrosis and the activity offibrogenesis, a~d percutaneous liver biopsy is therefore used to assess the extent of liver fibrosis and fibrogenesis (Friedman, 1993). However, a liver biopsy is ’ sometimes of questionable value because of the heterogeneous distribution of pathological changes in the liver. As a result, non-invasive biochemical markers for assessing liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis are being actively sought to help evaluate histologic damage and monitor the progression of fibrosis (Trinchet, 1995). The aim of the present study is to evaluate serum hyaluronic acid (.I-IA) and metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) as a markers of liver fibrosis and tl1eir association with other clinical parameters in patients wjtl.} chronic hepatitis. To fulfill this aim, 60 cases with chronic viral hepatitis of different aetiologies were suldied, in addition to 15 heaithy subjects, age and sex matched with the examined patients were studied as a conu’ol . group. . The studied ~ases included the following groups: HCV positive group (27 patients) comprised 23 males and 4 females with their meal1 age (41.24) years. This group subclassified into 18 patients non ci.lThotic (chronic hepatitis). This group subclassified into 18 patients; chronic hepatitis C group (16 males and 2 females) with mean age (38.83 :i: 9.31 years):i: SD and 9 patients post HCV cirrhosis (7 males and 2 females), with mean age (43.66:1: 14.37 years):i: SD.