OBJECTIVES: Needle liver biopsy has been shown to have a high rate of sampling error in
patients with diffuse parenchymal liver diseases. In these cases, the sample of liver tissue
does not reflect the true degree of inflammation, fibrosis, or cirrhosis, despite an adequate
sample size. The aim of this study was to determine the rate and extent of sampling error in
patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection, and to assess the intraobserver variation
with the commonly used scoring system proposed by Scheuer and modified by Batts and …