New blood test to predict risk of liver cirrhosis, cancer within 10 years

A newly developed blood test may aid in predicting the risk of developing severe liver disease within 10 years according to a studyThe study by researchers from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden showed that the simple blood analysis if applied in primary care may accelerate the detection of cirrhosis and cancer of the liverThese are diseases that are growing increasingly common and that have a poor prognosis if detected late said Rickard Strandberg affiliated researcher at the Institutets Department of Medicine who developed the testOur method can predict the risk of severe liver disease within 10 years and is based on three simple routine blood tests Strandberg addedFor the study published in the journal The BMJ the researchers evaluated how well the method can estimate the risk of severe liver diseaseThe model CORE was produced with advanced statistical methods and is based on five factors age sex and levels of three common liver enzymes AST ALT and GGT which are commonly measured during regular health checksThis is an important step toward being able to offer early screening for liver disease in primary care said principal investigator Hannes Hagstroumlm adjunct professor at Karolinska Institutets Department of MedicineHagstroumlm noted that even as drug treatment is available for treating people at a high risk of developing liver diseases such as cirrhosis or liver cancer the new test may have significant potentialThe study is based on data from over 480000 people in Stockholm who underwent health checks between 1985 and 1996 and were followed for up to 30 yearsThe CORE model proved highly accurate and was able to differentiate between people who either did or did not develop the disease in 88 per cent of cases the team saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever