WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 20, 2007) Research presented today at Digestive Disease Week 2007 (DDW) introduces unique methods for evaluating patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NAFLD is the most common liver disease in the world and the development of novel procedures for definitively diagnosing the disease and assessing its prognosis is extremely important for tailoring effective treatments. DDW is the largest international gathering of physicians and researchers in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery.

"Defeating the most common liver disease means continuing research in a field that is progressively transforming," said Jacquelyn J. Maher, M.D., University of California, San Francisco. "The methods highlighted in these studies will permit doctors to accurately identify NAFLD and potentially predict treatment outcomes, using less invasive approaches than the current standards."

While a liver biopsy is the standard method of diagnosis and disease progression for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), the most extreme form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), researchers previously demonstrated that a less invasive blood test to determine caspase three-generated cytokeratin 18 fragment levels (a noninvasive biomarker test, CK-18) can predict the incidence and magnitude of NASH. A study conducted by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio validates the utility of this novel biomarker for NASH diagnosis and assessment of disease severity in a large NAFLD population.

As an ancillary study of the NASH National Institute of Health Clinical Research Network (CRN), 178 patients with well-characterized biopsy-proven NAFLD participated in this study. Another 150 age-matched health controls were analyzed to validate the bio
'"/>

Contact: Aimee Frank
AFrank@gastro.org
301-941-2620
American Gastroenterological Association
20-May-2007