Screening for liver fibrosis.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Screening for liver fibrosis. A population-based study in European countries. The ‘’LiverScreen’’ project.
IRAS ID
258441
Contact name
Emmanuel Tsochatzis
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Fundació Clínic per a la Recerca Biomèdica (FCRB)
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
The hallmark of chronic liver disease, regardless of the underlying cause, is liver fibrosis. This is the formation of scar tissue in the liver which, in its most severe form, leads to cirrhosis.
In recent years significant progress has been made to develop tests for liver fibrosis that are simple, cheap and safe, reducing the need for invasive liver biopsies. These methods include blood tests or measuring the stiffness of the liver using a type of ultrasound scan called transient elastography (TE).
This study will investigate whether these simple and widely available non-invasive tests for detecting liver fibrosis can be used to screen for significant chronic liver disease among the general population in primary care, to identify disease at an early stage before symptoms develop. Eligible patients who are over 40 years old with no previous history of known liver disease will be recruited in primary care centres and have screening TE and blood tests. Patients with tests indicating possible underlying fibrosis will be referred to the hospital for further evaluation. The study aims to assess how common liver fibrosis is in the general population and compare the different non-invasive tests in evaluating this.
In a second stage, the study will evaluate the incidence of liver-related and cardiovascular-related outcomes after 5 and 10 years of follow-up in patients with and without liver fibrosis as diagnosed in stage 1.REC name
London - Riverside Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/LO/1087
Date of REC Opinion
8 Aug 2019
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion