What Histological Features Should be Included in Staging?
The features to be considered include fibrosis, architec- tural disturbance and cirrhosis (Table 2). In the case of the latter there may be considerable difficulty in as- sessing a small biopsy specimen, and the problem of potential sampling error must therefore be considered in all cases. For this reason, the staging categories are so worded that staging scores can be allotted, even if a diagnosis of cirrhosis is not completely certain.