{"id":2458,"date":"2016-11-13T17:32:14","date_gmt":"2016-11-13T17:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=2458"},"modified":"2016-11-13T17:32:14","modified_gmt":"2016-11-13T17:32:14","slug":"fatty-liver-disease-cirrhosis-could-run-in-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/fatty-liver-disease-cirrhosis-could-run-in-families\/","title":{"rendered":"Fatty liver disease cirrhosis could run in families"},"content":{"rendered":"

First-degree relatives of people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease cirrhosis have a 12 times higher risk of developing the disease when compared to those with no family history, according to a new research.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Liver\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) mimics the symptoms of alcoholic liver disease, but it is not caused by alcohol consumption, but rather the build up of fat in the liver usually in the setting of obesity and metabolic syndrome. NAFLD is becoming increasingly prevalent, and many researchers are looking at complications of \u2013 and genetic predisposition \u2013 to the disease.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

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“I started studying genetics of NAFLD in twins, and we found, to my surprise, that not only NAFLD, but also hepatic fibrosis, was a heritable trait (Loomba et al. Gastroenterology, 2015<\/i>),” explains Rohit Loomba<\/span>, MD, MHSc; director of the NAFLD Research Center at University of California, San Diego<\/span>, and lead investigator in the study. “We then decided to embark on studying patients with NAFLD cirrhosis and their first-degree relatives for the presence of advanced fibrosis.”<\/p>\n

Dr. Loomba’s team recently recruited 26 patients with NAFLD cirrhosis and 39 of their first-degree relatives (i.e., parent, sibling or child) and compared them with 69 pairs of first-degree relatives without the disease (representing the general population) to determine if there is a higher likelihood of developing cirrhosis if a first-degree relative already has it. They used advanced MRI methods to accurately quantify liver fat by MRI-PDFF (proton-density-fat-fraction) and hepatic fibrosis by MRE (elastography) in all cases and controls. This is the first prospective study of its kind with detailed MRI-based assessment of liver disease.<\/p>\n

The participants with NAFLD cirrhosis had an average age of 63 years and an average BMI of 31.7. Their first-degree relatives had an average age of 48 and an average BMI of 31. The participants with NAFLD cirrhosis had been confirmed to have NAFLD per the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases guidelines and cirrhosis through biopsy and imaging. Their first-degree relatives all underwent a standard research visit and were evaluated for cirrhosis through an MRI and MRE.<\/p>\n

The control group consisted of 69 people without evidence of cirrhosis and 69 of their first-degree relatives were also assessed for cirrhosis risk and compared to already published estimates of cirrhosis in the general population. This group had an average age of 43 and an average BMI of 25.2.<\/p>\n

Dr. Loomba’s team found prevalence among first-degree relatives of cirrhotic patients was 12 times higher than in the control group (17.9 percent vs. 1.4 percent). These participants also had higher odds of developing cirrhosis than those in the control group.<\/p>\n

Finally, the researchers conducted multivariable-adjusted analyses to account for age, sex, Hispanic heritage, BMI and diabetes and found that the results remained consistent; the likelihood of developing NAFLD cirrhosis was significantly higher among first-degree relatives of people who already have the disease, which leads the researchers to believe that first-degree relatives of NAFLD cirrhotics would benefit from screening for advanced fibrosis.<\/p>\n

“Risk of cirrhosis is significantly higher if you have a family history of NASH cirrhosis in first-degree relatives, so we should consider screening for cirrhosis in this population,” says Dr. Loomba of the findings of the study.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) mimics the symptoms of alcoholic liver disease, but it is not caused by alcohol consumption, but rather the build up of fat in the liver usually in the setting of obesity and metabolic syndrome. NAFLD is becoming increasingly prevalent, and many researchers are looking at complications of \u2013 and genetic predisposition \u2013 to the disease.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,4,35],"tags":[635,19,1412,1036,20],"class_list":["post-2458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-wellness-2","category-newsmakers","category-wellness-2","tag-cancer","tag-health","tag-nafld","tag-non-alcoholic-fatty-liver-disease","tag-wellness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2458"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2459,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458\/revisions\/2459"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}