【Objective】To research the diagnostic v alue of t ransfo rming grow th factor- β1 (TGF- β1 )fo r liver fibrosis in patient s w ith chronic hepati tis .【Methods】Serum levels of TGF- β1 in 143 patients w ith vi ral hepat itis w ere investigated by double sandw ich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (EIA)

comparing w ith hepatic histological findings of 87 patients .【Results】The serum level of TGF- β1 w as significant ly higher in patients w ith chronic hepat itis and hepatitis cirrhosis than that in normal cont rols (P <0.05).It w as also significantly higher in patients w ith liver histopathological activi ty than that in no rmal controls (P <0.05).No signif icant correlat ion existed betw een the level of serum TGF- β1 and the histological activi ty index (P >0.05). The correlation betw een the level of serum TGF- β1 and the histologically assessed stage of fibrosis w as moderate (r =0.612

P <0.05).The level of serum TGF- β1 in patients w ith hepatitis cirrhosis w as signif icantly higher than that in patients wi thout hepatitis cirrhosis (P <0.05).The areas under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC)curve of serum TGF- β1 to differentiate patient s w ith ex tensive liver fibrosis from those wi th no o r mild liver fibrosis w as 0.836

and that to dif ferentiate patient s w ith hepatitis cirrhosis f rom those w ithout hepatitis cirrhosis was 0.828 .Their cut off values w ere 80 μg/L and 120 μg/L 【Conclusion】The development of liver fibrosis can be implied by periodic detection of serum TGF- β1 .The level of serum TGF- β1 is v aluable in differentiat ing patients w ith ex tensive liver fibrosis from those with no or mild liver fibrosis and in the judgement of hepatit is cirrhosis

but i ts value is limited in comparison w ith liver biopsy .