scholarly journals Combined and sequential non-invasive approach to diagnosing non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and persistently normal alanine aminotransferase levels

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. e001174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth I Zheng ◽  
Wen-Yue Liu ◽  
Xiao-Yan Pan ◽  
Hong-Lei Ma ◽  
Pei-Wu Zhu ◽  
...  

Background and aimImaging-confirmed non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) with normal alanine aminotransferase (nALT) levels is infrequently the subject for further evaluation. Early diagnosis of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is needed to prevent disease progression. Thus, we tested the clinical utility of serum Golgi protein 73 (GP73) levels and developed a new non-invasive score to diagnose NASH in patients with biopsy-confirmed NAFLD and persistent nALT levels.MethodsSerum GP73 and cytokeratin-18 M30 fragments (CK18-M30) levels were measured in 345 patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD. We developed a new score, named G-NASH model (by incorporating serum GP73), and combined it with serum CK18-M30 measurement in a sequential non-invasive approach to accurately identify NASH among patients with NAFLD and persistent nALT levels.Results105 (30.4%) patients had persistent nALT, 53 of whom had histologically confirmed NASH. Both serum GP73 and CK18-M30 levels alone had poor diagnostic accuracy in identifying NASH (55.2% and 51.6%, respectively) in these patients. Conversely, G-NASH model performed better than other established non-invasive scoring systems, and by using our proposed sequential non-invasive approach 82.9% of patients with NASH were correctly identified.ConclusionsNASH is highly prevalent in patients with NAFLD with persistent nALT levels. The G-NASH model accurately identifies NASH in this patient group.

2015 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramesh P. Arasaradnam ◽  
Michael McFarlane ◽  
Emma Daulton ◽  
Erik Westenbrink ◽  
Nicola O’Connell ◽  
...  

Background & Aims: Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is the commonest cause of chronic liver disease in the western world. Current diagnostic methods including Fibroscan have limitations, thus there is a need for more robust non-invasive screening methods. The gut microbiome is altered in several gastrointestinal and hepatic disorders resulting in altered, unique gut fermentation patterns, detectable by analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in urine, breath and faeces. We performed a proof of principle pilot study to determine if progressive fatty liver disease produced an altered urinary VOC pattern; specifically NAFLD and Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH).Methods: 34 patients were recruited: 8 NASH cirrhotics (NASH-C); 7 non-cirrhotic NASH; 4 NAFLD and 15 controls. Urine was collected and stored frozen. For assay, the samples were defrosted and aliquoted into vials, which were heated to 40±0.1°C and the headspace analyzed by FAIMS (Field Asymmetric Ion Mobility Spectroscopy). A previously used data processing pipeline employing a Random Forrest classification algorithm and using a 10 fold cross validation method was applied.Results: Urinary VOC results demonstrated sensitivity of 0.58 (0.33 - 0.88), but specificity of 0.93 (0.68 - 1.00) and an Area Under Curve (AUC) 0.73 (0.55 -0.90) to distinguish between liver disease and controls. However, NASH/NASH-C was separated from the NAFLD/controls with a sensitivity of 0.73 (0.45 - 0.92), specificity of 0.79 (0.54 - 0.94) and AUC of 0.79 (0.64 - 0.95), respectively.Conclusions: This pilot study suggests that urinary VOCs detection may offer the potential for early non-invasive characterisation of liver disease using 'smell prints' to distinguish between NASH and NAFLD.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 276-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. B. Tapper ◽  
K. Krajewski ◽  
M. Lai ◽  
T. Challies ◽  
R. Kane ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol Publish Ahead of Print ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshifumi Yodoshi ◽  
Sarah Orkin ◽  
Andrew T. Trout ◽  
Ana Catalina Arce-Clachar ◽  
Kristin Bramlage ◽  
...  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document