METAVIR score

Last revised by Daniel J Bell on 4 Jan 2022

The METAVIR​ scoring system is a system used to assess the extent of inflammation and fibrosis by histopathological evaluation in a liver biopsy of patients with hepatitis C. The grade indicates the activity or degree of inflammation while the stage represents the amount of fibrosis or scarring.

Activity grade
  • A0: no activity
  • A1: mild activity
  • A2: moderate activity
  • A3: severe activity
Fibrosis stage
  • F0: no fibrosis
  • F1: portal fibrosis without septa
  • F2: portal fibrosis with few septa
  • F3: numerous septa without cirrhosis
  • F4: cirrhosis

History and etymology

In 1993, a group of ten French pathologists, lead by Pierre Bedossa, with a subspecialty interest in hepatic disease, set up the METAVIR cooperative group. The group was formed to discuss issues related to the pathological evaluation of chronic hepatitis C 5. Metavir is an acronym of "meta-analysis of histological data in viral hepatitis" 4. From the outset there was an intention for the group to assess histological samples from clinical trial patients and their correlations with other biomedical parameters 5.

Confusingly, there is also a web-based viral genome analysis platform called metavir which has nothing to do with the scoring system 6.

See also

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