What is it about?
Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis is an increasingly relevant public health problem, since it enhances the risk of progressive liver disease and of liver cancer. To date, no serological markers are available to identify this silent condition that is currently diagnosed only by liver biopsy. The study has identified the biomarker SCCA-IgM in serum that correlates significantly with the presence of steatohepatits in the liver in patients with hepatitis C.
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Why is it important?
The main finding of this study is a serum biomarker that can identify in chronic HCV infection patients with steatohepatits in the liver, a condition of progressive damage that can lead to cirrhosis and hepatocarcinoma. The diagnosis of steatohepatits can therfore be hypotized without the need of liver biopsy that is rarely use today in clinical practice.
Perspectives
The identification of patients with steatohepatitis can allow suitable treatment, within patients with fatty liver, only for the subgroup of patients with progressive liver disease.
Professor Patrizia Pontisso
University of Padua
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: HCV genotype 3 and squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCCA)-IgM are independently associated with histological features of NASH in HCV-infected patients, Journal of Viral Hepatitis, January 2015, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/jvh.12394.
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