Steatosite.com

As we head ever closer toward a functional database (which will contain clinical, imaging, pathology, and sequencing data from ~1000 NAFLD-spectrum patients), we are in the process of creating a new website.  This will include details on the application process for the SteatoSITE Data Commons, publications resulting from use of the data gathered, and more!

Stay tuned 🙂

 

Professor Dame Anna Dominiczak, Vice Principal of the University of Glasgow presented at the TEDxGlasgow 2019 event recently, highlighting the role she sees for Scotland in precision medicine.  We have such a unique opportunity here, with our unified community health identifier (CHI) number that allows us to pull together health records of every individual from pre-birth to death, and the interactions between our academic institutions and the NHS.  Implementing precision medicine will impact everyone in the future, making our treatments more effective, while costing society less.  This is something Scotland can be immensely proud of.

Check it out here: http://tiny.cc/4yhs8y

Our lead clinician, Professor Jonathan Fallowfield has been interviewed by the Daily Mail, talking about the prevalence and prevention of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7076061/Which-two-cause-chronic-liver-disease-Astonishingly-could.html

Investigations using transient elastography (Fibroscan) have shown that >20% of young adults in the ‘Children of the 90s’ longitudinal study have fatty deposits on the liver, or steatosis, indicating non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.  Half of those were classified as severe.  ~10% of those with NAFLD also had fibrosis, scar tissue in the liver.  Severe scarring can cause cirrhosis.

This has the potential to cause major problems in the future, and public health awareness campaigns are needed to alter behaviours which will impact health in the future.

Newspaper article here: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/12/experts-warn-of-fatty-liver-disease-epidemic-in-young-people?CMP=share_btn_tw

University of Bristol researchers presented data at the International Liver Congress 2019 in Vienna that as many as 20% of young adults in the study (mean age 24 years) had steatosis, up from a prevalence of 2.5% in the same cohort in their teenager years.  2.4% of individuals in the cohort had some degree of fibrosis, and 0.3% had fibrosis evaluations equivalent to stage 4 (F4) fibrosis.

This study indicates a requirement for greater public health awareness of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in young adults in the UK.

See the public release here: https://eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-04/sh-nfl040319.php