GO ASIA Initiative for Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

The study of the “Clinical features and treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease across the Asia Pacific region—the GO ASIA initiative” was based on data from nine centres across eight countries in the Gut and Obesity Asia (GO ASIA) Workgroup, a consortium formed to study the relationships between obesity and gastrointestinal diseases in the Asia Pacific region.
 
To date the largest study based on Asian biopsy-proven nonalcoholic fatty liver disease patients, it sets out to recognize patients at risk of more severe liver disease based on their clinical characteristics rather than through an invasive liver biopsy procedure. Factors such as older age, obesity, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidaemia, higher ALT, AST and lower platelet levels are found to be associated with more severe liver disease (Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2018 Jan 14. doi: 10.1111/apt.14506. [Epub ahead of print]).
 
Anyone interested in future collaboration in this field of research is welcome to contact our key investigator Prof Vincent Wong. Prof Wong is an expert in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease with a particular interest in the non-invasive assessment and treatment of chronic liver diseases.
 
Full article: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/apt.14506/full