health
Diet, alcohol, and sedentary lifestyle generate silent liver disease, warns study
The liver can be damaged for 25 or 30 years without the patient feeling anything. Without pain, warning signs, or alterations in routine tests. ...
TL;DR
- Liver fibrosis can develop for 25-30 years without symptoms or detectable changes in routine tests.
- The LiverScreen project, involving over 30,000 participants, found that 1.6% of people over 40 have undiagnosed liver fibrosis.
- Fibrosis occurs when the liver fails to repair damage from poor diet, alcohol, and sedentary lifestyle, leading to scarring.
- The study proposes a new detection method for primary care using age, sex, and blood test results (glucose, platelets, three liver enzymes).
- This new indicator is considered more reliable than transaminases alone.
- If the indicator is altered, patients are referred for non-invasive elastography to measure liver stiffness.
- Integrating liver screening into general medical check-ups is considered a priority.