Table 2 Comparison of clinical characteristics between patients with chronic hepatitis C, with and without liver biopsy

Factor	Total no.	With LB n = 447(72.8%)	Without LB n = 167(27.2%)	p Value
Sex, female (%)	243	184 (41.2)	59 (35.3)	0.196
Age, years	614	51.4 (10.8)*	50.5 (12.1)*	0.375
AST, IU/l	614	107.6 (64.5)*	105.3 (81.6)*	0.725†
ALT, IU/l	614	165.3 (116.5)*	169.9 (190.9)*	0.720†
HCV genotype				0.526
1b (%)	306	219 (49.0)	87 (52.1)
HCV RNA, log IU/ml	614	5.3 (0.9)*	5.3 (1.0)*	0.465

*Values are means (SD), unless otherwise indicated.
†p value obtained using non-parametric Mann–Whitney test.
LB, liver biopsy; HCV, hepatitis C virus; ALT, alanine aminotransferase; AST, aspartate aminotransferase.