Clinical Utility of Change in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Activity Score and Change in Fibrosis in NAFLD

Nobuharu Tamaki; Nagambika Munaganuru; Jinho Jung; Aed Qas Yonan; Richele Bettencourt; Veeral Ajmera; Mark A Valasek; Cynthia Behling; Rohit Loomba

doi:10.1016/j.cgh.2020.11.005

Clinical Utility of Change in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Activity Score and Change in Fibrosis in NAFLD

Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2021 Dec;19(12):2673-2674.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.cgh.2020.11.005. Epub 2020 Nov 3.

Authors

Nobuharu Tamaki¹, Nagambika Munaganuru², Jinho Jung², Aed Qas Yonan², Richele Bettencourt², Veeral Ajmera², Mark A Valasek³, Cynthia Behling⁴, Rohit Loomba⁵

Affiliations

¹ NAFLD Research Center, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California; Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Musashino Red Cross Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
² NAFLD Research Center, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California.
³ Department of Pathology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California.
⁴ Sharp Medical Group, Department of Pathology, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California.
⁵ NAFLD Research Center, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California. Electronic address: roloomba@ucsd.edu.

Abstract

The Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) Activity Score (NAS) has been applied as a method for evaluating treatment response, and a ≥2-point improvement in NAS has been commonly used as an accepted end point in phase 2b clinical trials in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.¹^,² Although liver fibrosis is the strongest histologic predictor of liver-related outcome and all-cause mortality in NAFLD,³^,⁴ the association between change in NAS and change in fibrosis stage has not been fully verified. Therefore, we aimed to examine the association between change in NAS and change in fibrosis stage in well-characterized patients with NAFLD who had a paired liver biopsy assessment.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Biopsy
Fibrosis
Humans
Liver / pathology
Liver Cirrhosis / diagnosis
Liver Cirrhosis / pathology
Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease* / complications
Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease* / pathology
Severity of Illness Index

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding