To enhance the role of FibroScan for the assessment of active fibrotic non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), Echosens, a high-technology company offering the FibroScan family of products, announces that the FAST score study has been accepted for publication in The Lancet Gastroenterology Hepatology. FAST is a cost-effective tool to help identify individuals at risk for fibrotic NASH, an asymptomatic progressive liver disease that leads to increased liver-related mortality and morbidity.
The FAST score is a simple combination of two physical biomarkers: liver stiffness by Vibration Controlled Transient Elastography (VCTE) and Controlled Attenuation Parameter (CAP) together with aspartate aminotransferase (AST), a circulating biomarker.
Dr. Phil Newsome, University of Birmingham Professor of Experimental Hepatology, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust Consultant Hepatologist, Director of the Centre for Liver and Gastrointestinal Research, Director of the Midlands and Wales Advanced Therapy Treatment Centre, and Deputy Director of the NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre, says: "The FAST score was derived from a prospective, multi-center study with 350 patients undergoing a liver biopsy and then validated in seven external cohorts with 1,026 patients. FAST score provides an efficient way to non-invasively identify at-risk patients with progressive NASH that merit consideration for further treatment. This is very timely and significant because the efficient identification of active fibrotic NASH has long been a challenge for drug companies, and many are now developing drugs targeting this disease."
Professor Newsome points to the multiple benefits of FAST, explaining that FAST is inexpensive, reduces unnecessary invasive testing and represents a quick, point-of-care solution that mitigates the need to send out for complex blood tests.
"FAST is simple to determine and interpret just requiring three numbers entered into a calculator," he adds, further explaining that FAST score provides a probability of active fibrotic-NASH.
It is estimated that 25% of the worldwide population is affected by non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), of which 3% to 5% have NASH. In the US and EU, it is estimated that 12.2MM people may be living fibrotic-NASH, many of which are undiagnosed.
Dr. Stephen A. Harrison, M.D., FACP, FAASLD, COL (ret.), USA, MC, visiting professor of Hepatology, Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, and medical director, Pinnacle Clinical Research, says, "The simplicity of the FAST score makes it easy to access and inexpensive and simple to interpret. This enables front-line health care professionals to calculate the score with an online calculator, like the one found on the available myFibroScan app, making this an economical and effective way to non-invasively determine if a patient is at-risk for progressive NASH and requires further treatment."
As Echosens continues to expand its capabilities of FibroScan, Dominique Legros, Group CEO, Echosens, states, "We envision that FAST score will be the first of many scores that combines the FibroScan physical biomarkers with circulating biomarkers. We look forward to making further developments for monitoring liver disease based on the consistency of FibroScan results."
About Echosens
Echosens is the world's number one provider of non-invasive medical devices dedicated to assessment of chronic liver diseases.
Echosens pioneered the field of elastography technology by developing FibroScan, the first device that quantifies liver stiffness non-invasively.
Echosens significantly changed the practice of liver diagnosis with FibroScan, the unique device using patented and validated VCTE for liver fibrosis assessment, and CAP for steatosis quantification.
FibroScan device is recognized worldwide as the reference for non-invasive liver diagnosis with more than 2,000 medical publications and 40 guidelines recommendations.
With a wide-reaching international distribution network, including Europe, spanning France (Paris), Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom, as well as the United States (Waltham) and China (Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing), Echosens has made FibroScan available in over 80 countries.
http://www.echosens.com
http://echosens.us/learn-more/
About the University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world's top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 6,500 international students from over 150 countries.
About The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)
The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is the nation's largest funder of health and care research. The NIHR:
- Funds, supports and delivers high quality research that benefits the NHS, public health and social care
- Engages and involves patients, careers and the public in order to improve the reach, quality and impact of research
- Attracts, trains and supports the best researchers to tackle the complex health and care challenges of the future
- Invests in world-class infrastructure and a skilled delivery workforce to translate discoveries into improved treatments and services
- Partners with other public funders, charities and industry to maximize the value of research to patients and the economy
The NIHR was established in 2006 to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research, and is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. In addition to its national role, the NIHR supports applied health research for the direct and primary benefit of people in low- and middle-income countries, using UK aid from the UK government.
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