In an interview after his presentation Dr. Hagström also emphasized the importance of long-term follow-up of patients.
“The clinical importance of this is that it is most important for clinicians to look at fibrosis stage, and I think to have to follow these patients a little bit more,” he said. “You can’t just do a liver biopsy, say ‘you just have steatosis, you don’t have NASH [nonalcoholic steatohepatitis], [so] you are fine’,” he added. Equally, it is not possible to say that because NASH is not present that patients won’t advance in the future. Patients need to be followed up for a long period of time.
“Fibrosis is the most important thing, both for clinicians and for patients,” Dr. Hagström said.Dr. Hagström has been a consultant to Novo Nordisk. Dr. Castera had no relevant financial disclosures.