Liver/Biliary Disorders News

SAN DIEGO — A significant proportion of alcoholic hepatitis cases remain unrecognized and correlate with higher 30-day mortality, hospital length of stay and ICU admission, according to results presented at Digestive Disease Week 2022.

Alcohol-related deaths have climbed steadily over the past two decades, and with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, alcohol-associated disease and mortality rates have continued to soar.

The COVID-19 pandemic stripped away layers of sugarcoating in our society — it exposed weak points across aspects of American life, stretched resources in public health and highlighted a deficit in recognition and access to mental health care and addiction medicine.

The FDA has granted fast track designation to Pfizer for ervogastat in combination with clesacostat for treatment of patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis with liver fibrosis, according to a company press release.

SAN DIEGO — Patients with cirrhosis who survived COVID-19 may not have worsening of underlying disease or death in the long-term compared with cirrhotic patients who never acquired COVID-19, noted data from Digestive Disease Week 2022.

A study of more than 1,300 women demonstrated that HIV is an independent risk factor for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis with significant nonalcoholic fatty liver disease activity and fibrosis, researchers reported.

SAN DIEGO — Researchers reported similar clinical outcomes in patients with decompensated hepatitis C virus cirrhosis treated with direct-acting antivirals, with or without protease inhibitors, according to study results.

SAN DIEGO — An increase in drug overdose donor utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a steady transplant volume among all organ types, including liver transplants, according to a presenter at Digestive Disease Week 2022.

In a Healio video exclusive, Bettina E. Hansen, MSc, PhD, discusses improvement in transplant-free survival in patients treated with seladelpar for primary biliary cholangitis.

SAN DIEGO — Liver stiffness assessment predicted liver-related complications and hepatocellular carcinoma development among patients with hepatitis C following direct-acting antiviral treatment, according to research.