A blood test for liver fibrosis could help GPs risk-stratify the growing number of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, a conference has heard.

The Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC) is deciding whether to fund Hepascore, a four-biomarker blood test and prognostic tool developed in Perth, for all patients with chronic liver disease.

The test results, combined with age and gender, provide a score indicating the likelihood of fibrosis, with different cut-offs for different stages.

Co-developer Associate Professor Leon Adams, from the University of WA and Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, said the test had first been validated for patients with hepatitis C, but outperformed simpler tests for patients with obesity as well.