Alanine Transaminase

Researchers are beginning to define the early steps toward a potential hepatitis B cure. In the meantime, hepatitis B care remains focused on finding patients for treatment, providing long-term therapy, and monitoring viral loads.

SAN ANTONIO — In this exclusive video from the National Liver Conference 2019, Robert S. Brown, MD, from the Weill Cornell Medical Center, examines “who to treat” among patients with hepatitis B based on a panel discussion from the meeting.

NEW ORLEANS — New real-world data demonstrate safety and effectiveness of macitentan for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension associated with systemic sclerosis, with outcomes consistent with those in idiopathic and heritable PAH, researchers reported at the CHEST Annual Meeting.

Changes in liver fat can predict changes in steatosis but not other liver histological parameters like improvements in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease activity score or resolution of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis without worsening of fibrosis, according to data published in Journal of Hepatology.

Enanta Pharmaceuticals announced positive results in alanine aminotransferase and liver fat content reduction from its current trial of EDP-305, a small molecule farnesoid X receptor under investigation for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, according to a press release.

Approximately 30% of Americans have fatty liver, but only a small proportion have progressed to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. One of the complications that we face in finding these patients is that our current treatment guidelines for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease do not recommend routine screening. Additionally, it is not feasible to send every patient with potential risk factors for an invasive procedure like liver biopsy. What we have at our disposal, however, are some very simple noninvasive biomarkers and tools to help stratify which patients should be followed for fatty liver and its progression.

Specialists from all medical fields have become more aware over the last few decades about how one disease can feed the development of others and that the need for co-management is crucial to optimize patient quality of life and life expectancy. As the incidence and prevalence of fatty liver disease grows in the U.S. and around the world, prevention of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and commonly concurrent advanced fibrosis has become a concern outside of the field of hepatology.

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis is an increasingly common cause of cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma and liver-related mortality. Along its progression, severe nonalcoholic steatohepatitis includes the development of clinically significant or advanced fibrosis. Currently, there are no approved therapeutics to treat this disease, but that will be changing soon.

PARIS — Inclisiran, an investigational cholesterol-lowering therapy in the small-interfering RNA class, achieved durable and potential LDL reduction with twice-yearly injections, according to new data from the ORION-11 study.

Prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease — and its more severe stage, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH, in particular — is increasing in developed countries. The condition has surpassed alcoholism as a cause of cirrhosis and will soon be the primary cause of liver transplantation in the United States, exceeding hepatitis C, according to Kenneth Cusi, MD, FACP, FACE, chief of the division of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at University of Florida.