(Press-News.org) New research reveals that advanced fibrosis is a significant predictor of mortality in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), largely brought about by cardiovascular causes. NAFLD alone was not associated with increased mortality according to findings published in the April issue of Hepatology, a journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases.
With super-sized portions, sugary soft drinks and physical inactivity, obesity is on the rise and showing no sign of slowing. Studies report that the prevalence of obesity has doubled in the U.S. over the past 25 years. As obesity rates have soared, so has the incidence of NAFLD, making it the most prevalent liver disease in the U.S.
NAFLD is a chronic form of liver disease that includes such conditions as steatosis without fibrosis, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with fibrosis, and cirrhosis. Fibrosis is the progressive scarring of the liver with stages ranging from zero to four (cirrhosis). Medical evidence has found that patients with simple steatosis have a better prognosis than those with NASH, which could progress to end-stage liver disease.
Lead investigator Dr. W. Kim Ray from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. explains, "The effect of NAFLD on public health is not well understood. Large, population-based studies, which can provide insight into disease activity, present some difficulty given that liver biopsy is required to confirm NAFLD."
To investigate the long-term impact of NAFLD on mortality, the team used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)—a survey by the National Center for Health Statistics in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that was conducted from 1988 to 1994 with mortality follow-up through 2006. NAFLD was diagnosed by ultrasound and severity of fibrosis was measured by non-invasive fibrosis markers such as the NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS).
Findings indicate that of the 11,154 participants, 34% had NAFLD, with 72% of these patients having a NFS that indicated lack of significant fibrosis (NFS less than -1.455) and 3% with advanced fibrosis (NFS greater than 0.676). NAFLD was not associated with higher mortality risk after a median of 15 years of follow-up.
Further analysis shows that mortality increases as fibrosis advances. In fact, patients likely to progress to advanced fibrosis had a 69% increase in mortality compared to those without fibrosis. Higher mortality in those with advanced fibrosis was largely due to cardiovascular causes, more than expected from conditions common in patients with NAFLD such as high blood pressure or high levels of cholesterol. "Our findings confirm that NAFLD patients without advanced fibrosis do not have higher mortality risk," concludes Dr. Kim. "Careful monitoring of disease progression in patients with NAFLD and fibrosis, along with interventions that reduce cardiovascular risk factors are warranted."
INFORMATION:
This study is published in Hepatology. Media wishing to receive a PDF of this article may contact sciencenewsroom@wiley.com.
Full citation: "Association Between Noninvasive Fibrosis Markers and Mortality Among Adults with Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in the United States." Donghee Kim, W. Ray Kim, Hwa Jung Kim and Terry M. Therneau. Hepatology; (DOI: 10.1002/hep.26156) Print Issue Date: April, 2013.
URL: http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/hep.26156
Author Contact: Media wishing to speak with Dr. Kim may contact Brian Kilen with the Mayo Clinic at kilen.brian@mayo.edu or at +1 507-266-1161.
About the Journal
Hepatology is the premier publication in the field of liver disease, publishing original, peer-reviewed articles concerning all aspects of liver structure, function and disease. Each month, the distinguished Editorial Board monitors and selects only the best articles on subjects such as immunology, chronic hepatitis, viral hepatitis, cirrhosis, genetic and metabolic liver diseases and their complications, liver cancer, and drug metabolism. Hepatology is published on is published by Wiley on behalf of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). For more information, please visit http://wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hep.
About Wiley
Wiley is a global provider of content-enabled solutions that improve outcomes in research, education, and professional practice. Our core businesses produce scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly journals, reference works, books, database services, and advertising; professional books, subscription products, certification and training services and online applications; and education content and services including integrated online teaching and learning resources for undergraduate and graduate students and lifelong learners.
Founded in 1807, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (NYSE: JWa, JWb), has been a valued source of information and understanding for more than 200 years, helping people around the world meet their needs and fulfill their aspirations. Wiley and its acquired companies have published the works of more than 450 Nobel laureates in all categories: Literature, Economics, Physiology or Medicine, Physics, Chemistry, and Peace. Wiley's global headquarters are located in Hoboken, New Jersey, with operations in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Canada, and Australia. The Company's website can be accessed at http://www.wiley.com.
END
For the first time, scientists have demonstrated the mechanism of action of gossypin, a naturally-occurring substance found in fruits and vegetables, as a treatment for melanoma, which causes the majority of deaths from skin cancer.
"We identified gossypin as a novel agent with dual inhibitory activity towards two common mutations that are the ideal targets for melanoma treatment," said Texas Biomed's Hareesh Nair, Ph.D.
At the moment, there is no single therapeutic agent or combination regimen available to treat all melanomas, of which about 76,000 new cases are diagnosed ...
Virginia Tech scientists have provided new evidence that biofilms — bacteria that adhere to surfaces and build protective coatings — are at work in the survival of the human pathogen Salmonella.
One out of every six Americans becomes ill from eating contaminated food each year, with over a million illnesses caused by Salmonella bacteria, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Finding out what makes Salmonella resistant to antibacterial measures could help curb outbreaks.
Researchers affiliated with the Fralin Life Science Institute discovered that ...
A recent study has shown that bottom-dwelling goosefish, also known as monkfish, prey on dovekies, a small Arctic seabird and the smallest member of the puffin family. To understand how this deep-water fish finds a shallow-feeding bird in offshore waters, researchers looked at when, where, and how these animals were most likely to be in the same place at the same time.
Remains of fourteen dovekie were recovered from the stomachs of 14 goosefish caught during the winters between 2007 and 2010. The goosefish were captured in gillnets deployed at depths between 275 and 495 ...
A simple in-home training program for caregivers can give children of AIDS patients a better shot at prosperity by improving their early-childhood development, according to a study led by a Michigan State University researcher.
Michael Boivin, MSU associate professor in the departments of Psychiatry, and of Neurology and Ophthalmology, conducted the research in Uganda, where about one million children have lost at least one parent to AIDS -- an unlucky club that adds another member every 14 seconds.
With deceased or gravely ill parents who often work long hours in ...
BOSTON (April 10, 2013) – The ongoing dance between a virus and its host distinctly shapes how the virus evolves. While human adenoviruses typically cause mild infections, recent reports have described newly characterized adenoviruses that can cause severe, sometime fatal, human infections.
Researchers from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School, Provincial Laboratory for Public Health, School of Systems Biology, George Mason University, and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center report a systems ...
New Rochelle, NY, April 10, 2013—New classes of drugs that can silence specific genes, such as small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), offer great therapeutic potential. But the specific delivery of siRNAs to target cells to exert their effects remains a significant challenge. A novel nanoparticle-based approach that enables more efficient delivery of siRNA drugs is presented in Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers (http://www.liebertpub.com). The article is available on the Nucleic Acid Therapeutics website (http://www.liebertpub.com/nat).
Compared ...
It may seem counter-intuitive to take health advice from a marketing professor, but when it comes to analyzing consumer data and its relationship to managing health issues such as diabetes, one University of Alberta researcher may have the right prescription.
In a paper recently published in the Journal of Marketing, Alberta School of Business professor Yu Ma uncovered information that has implications for health-care professionals, marketers and consumers alike. He says the data on consumer spending contain streams of information showing that decisions consumers make ...
Topological insulators (TIs) are an exciting new type of material that on their surface carry electric current, but within their bulk, act as insulators. Since the discovery of TIs about a decade ago, their unique characteristics (which point to potential applications in quantum computing) have been explored theoretically, and in the last five years, experimentally.
But where in theory, the bulk of TIs carry no current, in the laboratory, impurities and disorder in real materials means the bulk is, in fact, conductive. This has proven an obstacle to experimentation with ...
CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Many factors — including climate change, overfishing or loss of food supply — can push a wild animal population to the brink of collapse. Ecologists have long sought ways to measure the risk of such a collapse, which could help wildlife and fishery managers take steps to protect endangered populations.
Last year, MIT physicists demonstrated that they could measure a population's risk of collapse by monitoring how fast it recovers from small disturbances, such as a food shortage or overcrowding. However, this strategy would likely require many years of ...
Functional loss of limb control in individuals with spinal cord injury or stroke can be caused by interruption of the neural pathways between brain and spinal cord, although the neural circuits located above and below the lesion remain functional. An artificial neural connection that bridges the lost pathway and connects brain to spinal circuits has potential to ameliorate the functional loss. Yukio Nishimura, Associate Professor of the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Japan, and Eberhard Fetz, Professor and Steve Perlmuter, Research Associate Professor at ...
