Twenty years after the first surveys of liver disease were done cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma were still found to be the most important liver diseases in Papua New Guinea. Hepatitis B virus appears to be the main cause of both these conditions. Data from a number of different sources suggest a prevalence of hepatitis B positivity of about 17%. The most significant new finding was grade 3 iron deposition in 8 patients. This raises the question as to whether iron storage disease may now contribute to the spectrum of liver disease in Papua New Guinea. Many biopsies in the 1960s and 1980s were interpreted as nonspecific hepatitis; in the light of recent observations, at least some of these may have been due to hepatitis C infection.

Reporting a measurement procedure and its analytical performance following method evaluation in a peer-reviewed journal is an important means for clinical laboratory practitioners to share their findings. It also represents an important source of evidence base to help others make informed decisions about their practice. At present, there are significant variations in the information reported in laboratory medicine journal publications describing the analytical performance of measurement procedures. These variations also challenge authors, readers, reviewers, and editors in deciding the quality of a submitted manuscript. The International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine Working Group on Method Evaluation Protocols (IFCC WG-MEP) developed a checklist and recommends its adoption to enable a consistent approach to reporting method evaluation and analytical performance characteristics of measurement procedures in laboratory medicine journals. It is envisioned that the Laboratory Evaluation and Analytical Performance Characteristics (LEAP) checklist will improve the standardisation of journal publications describing method evaluation and analytical performance characteristics, improving the quality of the evidence base that is relied upon by practitioners.