The concepts of grading and staging have traditionally been applied to neoplasms. Grading describes the de- gree of differentiation of a neoplasm, while staging de- notes the extent of its spread. The same principles can be applied, however, with some modifications, to non- neoplastic conditions such as chronic hepatitis (3). Grading may be used to describe the intensity of necro- inflammatory activity in chronic hepatitis. Staging, on the other hand, is a measure of fibrosis and architec- tural alteration, i.e. structural progression of the dis- ease; these features are currently believed to be the consequence of the necroin~ammatory process.