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The 2022 NAFLD Summit presented a range of perspectives and insights on fatty liver and metabolic diseases. Program speakers Mazen Noureddin, Sven Francque and Hannes Hagström join Surfer Roger Green, on-site from Dublin to review their reactions immediately after the conference ended. 

In this episode, the panelists discuss presentations and sessions they found particularly compelling. The group notes Session 7 from Day 2 as an attractive line of topics covering overlooked issues in clinical trials. While difficult to quantify the impact on clinical trials, the data supports approximately 10% of patients with NAFLD underreport alcohol consumption. Hannes’ own presentation at the NAFLD Summit covered this subject. However, his concern lies in possible patient reluctance to enter a clinical trial in response to ‘the elephant in the room.’ Roger and Mazen are optimistic that simpler, faster biomarkers will help overcome this challenge. Mazen also shares his interest in Sven’s presentation which provided an introduction to cardiovascular comorbidities within the same theme of Session 7.

Next, Sven focuses on the strengths of consulting with non-hepatologists on how the treatment of comorbidities affects NAFLD. They provide different, more holistic perspectives than one typically hears in a hepatology-centric event. Recently, this podcast has begun to focus on multi-organ metabolic effects more frequently. Patients rarely face NAFLD or NASH as an isolated liver problem. More often, other metabolic diseases ride along with it. Sven emphasizes that the researcher must keep the entire scope in focus when designing and executing NASH trials.

This episode is sponsored by Resoundant, a Mayo Clinic company and the developers of Magnetic Resonance Elastography. MRE is widely available with over 2000 locations worldwide, and can be done as a low-cost, rapid exam in just 5 minutes. Together with PDFF, this quantitative exam is called an Hepatogram – a powerful non-invasive alternative to liver biopsy in many cases. For more information, visit www.resoundant.com on the web.