Cirrhosis/Liver Failure News

Overweight and obesity are significant risk factors for liver disease, especially fatty liver disease. Weight loss and exercise can not only decrease the risk for developing fatty liver but also improve outcomes after liver transplantation, protect and reverse hepatic steatosis, and improve kidney function in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network and United Network for Organ Sharing board of directors approved a set of policy amendments designed to reduce geographic differences in liver transplant access and distribution.

BiomX recently announced the acquisition of RondinX to expand the company’s pipeline with novel microbial targets for the treatment of liver disease and inflammatory bowel disease, according to a press release.

New data showed that the VAP score — a novel noninvasive liver fibrosis staging model derived from aspartate aminotransferase, platelet count and von Willebrand factor antigen — outperformed other validated noninvasive methods among patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Liver transplantation is a necessity for many chronic liver diseases, including hepatocellular carcinoma, chronic hepatitis C, and alcoholic liver disease. Over the past year, researchers and physicians have reported changes among the leading indications on the liver waitlist and improvements in transplantation outcomes.

Sustained virologic response after direct-acting antiviral treatment for hepatitis C significantly improved liver stiffness from baseline to end of treatment, and continued to improve liver stiffness among those with progressive fibrosis at 24 weeks posttreatment, according to recently published data.

Acetaminophen-induced acute liver injury and failure are more common in women than men, according to recently published data. Women also have greater critical care needs and have an increased risk for severe hepatic encephalopathy, potentially related to increased use of sedatives.

Galectin Therapeutics announced that its proprietary compound GR-MD-02 significantly reduced hepatic venous pressure gradient in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis-related cirrhosis without esophageal varices in a recent phase 2b trial.

An analysis of the liver waitlist revealed that as the total number of liver transplantations in the U.S. has increased each year, alcoholic liver disease has become the leading indication over hepatitis C.

Single metabolic parameters are insufficient in evaluating risks for severe liver disease, according to a recently published study. Instead, researchers advised that a comprehensive risk assessment must include multiple factors of the metabolic syndrome and any alcohol use.