Is laparoscopy an advantage in the diagnosis of cirrhosis in chronic hepatitis C virus infection?

Table 5 Comparisons in pretreatment parameters between patients with sustained response and patients with non-re-sponse to interferon treatment (n = 39)

	Sustained-responders	Non-responders	P
Number (%)	14 (35.9%)	25 (64.1%)
Age (years)	50.6 ± 13.9	47.2 ± 10.6	ns
Genotype 1b (%)	5 (35.7%)	18 (72%)	< 0.02a
Fibrosis staging score (%)
I	7 (50.0%)	9 (36.0%)
II	3 (21.4%)	8 (32.0%)
III	3 (21.4%)	3 (12.0%)
Cirrhosis	1 (7.0%)	5 (20.0%)	ns
Laparoscopic evidence	2 (14.2%)	9 (36.0%)	< 0.02a
of cirrhosis (%)

Data of age were showed as mean ± standard deviation;

^aChi-square test, ns = not significant.