PHILADELPHIA – When evaluating patients with established non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), using pre-screening criteria may help identify the subset of patients who should be subjected to liver biopsy, according to Vinod K. Rustgi, MD.
The recently described pre-screening criteria include a set of patient and disease characteristics that identify who might be at highest risk for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and fibrosis, said Dr. Rustgi, chief of hepatology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, N.J.
“Eighty-five percent of the patients who fall into this category will actually have fibrosis on liver biopsy. So it’s a good way to screen out who you want to actually biopsy,” Dr. Rustgi said at the meeting, jointly provided by Rutgers and Global Academy for Medical Education.
Liver biopsy needs to be considered in patients with NAFLD who are at increased risk of having advanced fibrosis, according to the latest practice guidance on diagnosis and management of NAFLD (Hepatology. 2018 Jan;67[1]:328-57).