{"id":35462,"date":"2016-07-14T16:31:21","date_gmt":"2016-07-14T20:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?p=35462"},"modified":"2016-07-14T16:32:58","modified_gmt":"2016-07-14T20:32:58","slug":"new-tool-to-identify-persons-with-nonalcoholic-fatty-liver-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2016\/07\/14\/new-tool-to-identify-persons-with-nonalcoholic-fatty-liver-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"New Tool to Identify Persons with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_35463\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-35463\" style=\"width: 117px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/camed\/files\/2016\/07\/COM-Long-Michelle.jpg\" alt=\"Michelle Long\" class=\"size-full wp-image-35463\" height=\"150\" width=\"107\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-35463\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michelle Long<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong><\/strong><strong><\/strong>A new diagnostic model, known as the Framingham Steatosis Index (FSI), which is highly predictive of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), may become a cheaper and easier alternative to screen for liver fat, the major feature of this condition. These findings appeared in the journal <em>Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology<\/em>, and was a collaborative effort led by corresponding author Michelle Long, MD, assistant professor of medicine.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/camed\/files\/2015\/07\/framingham-heart-study-e1457105820923.jpg\" alt=\"framingham-heart-study\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-20691\" height=\"133\" width=\"200\" \/>Using data from the Framingham Heart Study (FHS) researchers performed a cross-sectional study of more than 1,000 members of the Framingham Third Generation Cohort. FHS participants with fatty liver disease were identified by abdominal CT scans. Researchers evaluated a comprehensive list of demographic, clinical and laboratory parameters including liver enzymes such as alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and the ratio of AST:ALT to identify people with hepatic steatosis.<\/p>\n<p>The data was analyzed to find a set of predictors of hepatic steatosis. The researchers found that a model that includes age, gender, hypertension, triglyceride levels, diabetes and the ratio of AST:ALT correlated with NAFLD. The FSI was then externally validated and was found to be an effective surrogate diagnostic index for NAFLD.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClinically, the FSI may be useful to help identify NAFLD patients or those at high risk for steatosis who may benefit from abdominal imaging.\u00a0 Additionally, the ALT:AST ratio may be considered a useful surrogate for hepatic steatosis (versus either ALT or AST alone) especially for future population-based studies,\u201d explained Long, who is also a gastroenterologist at Boston Medical Center (BMC).<\/p>\n<p>This study is\u00a0 a collaboration between BUSM; the Division of Gastroenterology at BMC; the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute\u2019s Framingham Heart Study; the Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Alabama; the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Boston University; the Radiology Department, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School and the Division of Endocrinology, Hypertension, and Metabolism, Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital, Harvard Medical School.<\/p>\n<p>Funding for this study was provided by BUSM and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute\u2019s Framingham Heart Study (contact N01-HC-25195 and HHSN268201500001l) and the Division of Intramural Research of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michelle Long, MD, assistant professor of medicine, led the collaborative effort. Findings were published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91,90],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35462"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35462"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35466,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35462\/revisions\/35466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}