Liver biopsy can be performed to examine liver tissue to distinguish between various conditions; tests such as elastography may reduce the need for biopsy in some situations.In liver disease, prothrombin time is longer than usual. In addition, the amounts of both coagulation factors and anticoagulation factors are reduced as a diseased liver cannot productively synthesize them as it did when healthy. Nonetheless, there are two exceptions in this falling tendency: coagulation factor VIII and von Willebrand factor, a platelet adhesive protein. Both inversely rise in the setting of hepatic insufficiency, thanks to the drop of hepatic clearance and compensatory productions from other sites of the body. Fibrinolysis generally proceeds faster with acute liver failure and advanced stage liver disease, unlike chronic liver disease in which concentration of fibrinogen remains unchanged.A previously undiagnosed liver disease may become evident first after autopsy. Following are gross pathology images:

Treatment
Anti-viral medications are available to treat infections such as hepatitis B. Other conditions may be managed by slowing down disease progression, for example:

By using steroid-based drugs in autoimmune hepatitis. Regularly removing a quantity of blood from a vein (venesection) in the iron overload condition, hemochromatosis. Wilson’s disease, a condition where copper builds up in the body, can be managed with drugs that bind copper, allowing it to be passed from the body in urine. In cholestatic liver disease, (where the flow of bile is affected due to cystic fibrosis) a medication called ursodeoxycholic acid may be given. See also
Model for end-stage liver disease (MELD)

References
Further reading
Friedman, Lawrence S.; Keeffe, Emmet B. (2011-08-03).
Liver transplantation can be curative. Gilberts syndrome, a genetic disorder of bilirubin metabolism found in a small percent of the population, can cause mild jaundice. Cirrhosis is the formation of fibrous tissue (fibrosis) in the place of liver cells that have died due to a variety of causes, including viral hepatitis, alcohol overconsumption, and other forms of liver toxicity. Cirrhosis causes chronic liver failure. Primary liver cancer most commonly manifests as hepatocellular carcinoma or cholangiocarcinoma; rarer forms include angiosarcoma and hemangiosarcoma of the liver. (Many liver malignancies are secondary lesions that have metastasized from primary cancers in the gastrointestinal tract and other organs, such as the kidneys, lungs.) Primary biliary cirrhosis is a serious autoimmune disease of the bile capillaries. Primary sclerosing cholangitis is a serious chronic inflammatory disease of the bile duct, which is believed to be autoimmune in origin. Budd–Chiari syndrome is the clinical picture caused by occlusion of the hepatic vein. Mechanisms
Liver diseases can develop through several mechanisms:

DNA damage
One general mechanism, increased DNA damage, is shared by some of the major liver diseases, including infection by hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus, heavy alcohol consumption, and obesity.Viral infection by hepatitis B virus, or hepatitis C virus causes an increase of reactive oxygen species. The increase in intracellular reactive oxygen species is about 10,000-fold with chronic hepatitis B virus infection and 100,000-fold following hepatitis C virus infection. This increase in reactive oxygen species causes inflammation and more than 20 types of DNA damage.