S5 - E9.1 - VCTE As A Prognostic And Therapeutic Tool For MASLD

Surfing the MASH Tsunami

This conversation focuses on the role of VCTE in diagnosing, staging and treating MASLD patients, both in terms of prognostic ability of VCTE when compared to biopsy and separately as a therapeutic adjunct.
It starts with Hannes Hagstrom and Jörn Schattenberg discussing a study from Vincent Wong and a large group of co-authors, including Hannes,, that compares the abilities or VCTE and biopsy to predict outcomes. After Hannes mentions the studies and makes the key point that VCTE might be sufficient to predict the risk of outcomes in clinical trials or other events, Jörn describes the study in greater detail and goes on to ask a basic question, if a patient comes into a referral center with a VCTE-supported score of 10.2 kilopascals, what does that tell the physician about how to treat? Hannes notes a further complication: this is a tricky test to do properly, particularly in obese patients. He asks whether high kilopascal scores on VCTE should be repeated. Jörn responds that he often does the retest himself, and goes on to suggest that unlike all other tests, a repeat VCTE test four weeks later might serve a therapeutic purpose while also validating earlier results.
Louise Campbell comments that frequent retesting can have two different types of impact. During holiday season, it can inform the patient on exactly how much change increased eating and drinking has caused the liver. During more normal or therapeutic times, it can show the patient how quickly improved behavior might translate into improved liver health.