Liver Disease

Liver Awareness Month raises awareness of liver disease causes, risks, symptoms, and prevention, highlighting individual actions and policy efforts.

Patients with chronic liver disease who were unable to establish care were 85% more likely to require recurrent hospitalizations. This group included a disproportionate number of women and individuals with physical limitations affecting their health.

The first medication for the treatment of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and liver fibrosis received accelerated approval. Previously, the only treatment available to patients was implementing lifestyle changes aimed at weight reduction.

In this study, authors assessed the proportion of patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) receiving prescriptions for statins in primary care.

Curative direct-acting antivirals for chronic hepatitis C provide a net economic benefit to Medicaid in less than 1 year. Cumulative savings to date have exceeded $15 billion.

A more-developed version of the assay used in this study may help manage patients with acute decompensation of liver cirrhosis or acute-on-chronic liver failure before liver transplantation.

Patients with Medicare Advantage (MA) were 1.5 times more likely to die within a month of surgical removal of their stomach or liver, and twice as likely to die within a month of oncologic surgery of the pancreas, compared with patients with traditional Medicare.

Across 4 types of smoking status groups, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) risk significantly increased among participants who saw an increase in body mass index (BMI) and decreased among participants whose BMI went down.

Challenges to the care of chronic liver disease (CLD) include the burden of costs, managed and multidisciplinary care issues, and the lack of awareness for clinical guidelines.

In an interview, the section chief of hepatology at Rush University Medical Center discussed why the addition of the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) diagnosis code K76.82 is necessary.

Black and Latino Americans saw surges in health care insurance enrollment through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) between 2020 and 2022; Medicaid enrollment and spending is expected to slow in 2023; the Biden administration is preparing a national hepatitis C treatment plan.

New research is identifying the recipient and donor factors that allow for greater longevity for certain livers after transplantation.

Researchers also found an improvement in specialized blood markers focusing on inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, and albumin function in patients receiving weekly albumin injection.

Chronic liver disease and pancreatitis were among the digestive diseases with high increases in incidence and mortality since 2000.

There are no FDA-approved therapies for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), but there are many being developed. Resmetirom and obeticholic acid are both being reviewed by the FDA with decisions expected in 2023.

Individuals who were homozygous carriers of the PNPLA3 I148M genetic variant and reported excessive drinking and obesity had a 17.5 to 30.1 higher risk of progression to liver disease complications.

Among individuals without metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), those with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) had a higher risk of developing metabolic syndrome.

Urease-positive Streptococcus salivarius was the most significantly abundant gut microbiota in patients with HE.

Pichamol Jirapinyo, MD, MPH, director of bariatric endoscopy fellowship at Brigham and Women's Hospital, explains the implications of her study on the effects of endoscopic gastric plication on liver fibrosis in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).

Patients with hepatic encephalopathy (HE) often do not seek care until they are in critical condition, making an optimized emergency care process critical to reduce adverse prognosis and improve clinical symptoms.

A comprehensive review assessed the ways that proper nutrition could help reduce the adverse effects of hepatic encephalopathy in patients with hepatic encephalopathy.

Compared with the use of lactulose alone, rifaximin plus lactulose can provide additional benefits in terms of increased effectiveness rate and decreased mortality in patients with hepatic encephalopathy (HE).

A review of 6 studies on treatment options for hepatic encephalopathy found that many require further research before they can be recommended.

A new analysis found only 1 in 10 studies of inequities in liver cancer had a European focus or origin.

A recent study aimed to provide insight and guidance for managing graft-versus-host disease in patients after liver transplantation.

US adult outpatients with psoriasis have a greater risk of developing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease compared with those without the skin condition.

In this column, an endocrinologist discusses the growing problem of liver disease and new options at their disposal, including vibration-controlled transient elastography.

Chronic liver disease is on the rise and the burden is expected to increase in the future, both in the United States and around the world. These are the most-read articles about liver disease in 2021.

Two posters presented at The Liver Meeting evaluated nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)–associated hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to understand the burden and identify the risk for developing HCC.