Suspicious liver nodule in chronic liver disease: Usefulness of a second biopsy

International audience; Purpose: To assess the usefulness of a second biopsy when the first one was inconclusive in patients with a liver nodule found during the follow-up for chronic liver disease.Materials and methods: Among 381 patients (544 nodules) included in a prospective study designed to evaluate the accuracy of imaging for the diagnosis of small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in chronic liver disease, 254 nodules were biopsied. The following histological results were considered as conclusive: HCC, dysplastic or regenerative nodule, and other identified tumors (benign or malignant). For nodules with inconclusive results (e.g. fibrosis or no definite focal lesion), a second biopsy w…