New Stool Test Could Spot Liver Disease Years Before Symptoms

Health experts in the United States (US) have raised hope for thousands of patients that are down with liver disease, saying a stool test could detect the condition before symptoms arise without the need for invasive tests. These are the findings of a new study published in the journal ‘Nature Communications’.

The new method looks at bacteria in stool, which can tell doctors if non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is at an early or advanced stage. The stool-based microbiome diagnostic could be available within five years and would cost around £300, the ‘Mailonline’ reported. According to a Professor of Medicine Dr. Rohit Loomba who is part of the research team said, “If we are better able to diagnose NAFLD-related cirrhosis, we will be better at enrolling the right types of patients in clinical trials, and ultimately will be better equipped to prevent and treat it.

“This latest advance toward a non-invasive stool test for NAFLDcirrhosis may also help pave the way for other microbiome-based diagnostics and therapeutics, and better enable us to provide personalised, or precision, medicine for a number of conditions.” Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is when excess fat builds up in the liver due to causes other than alcohol use. NAFLD is related to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. It can be diagnosed by a liver biopsy. Treatment is generally with weight loss by dietary changes and exercise. If left undetected, NAFLD can develop into serious liver damage, including cirrhosis, but it is incredibly difficult to catch early because there are few symptoms and it requires surgery. The estimated prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) worldwide is approximately 25 per cent. However, the real prevalence of NAFLD and the associated disorders is unknown mainly because reliable and applicable diagnostic tests are lacking.

However, researchers at the University of California (UC), San Diego, has identified unique patterns of bacterial species in the stool of people with the condition. The team identified 27 unique bacterial features unique to the gut microbiomes, and thus stool, of people with NAFLD-cirrhosis. They were able to use this non-invasive stool test to pick out the people with known NAFLDcirrhosis with 92 per cent accuracy. But more importantly, the test allowed them to differentiate the firstdegree relative with previously undiagnosed NAFLD-cirrhosis with 87 per cent accuracy. The results were confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging.