The liver is the largest organ of the body. It helps in filtering blood which flows from the digestive tract. If proper care is not taken, then a person’s liver can go through increasing grade of scarring on the tissue surface.

This impairs the organ’s ability to do its job properly. As a result, the patient can see the liver issue progressing from inflammation, fibrosis, cirrhosis, end stage liver disease, or liver cancer. Fatty liver disease too is one of the common diseases that are faced by people when they don’t care for their liver properly.

The life-saving value offered by timely detection of liver issues

It is evident that not taking care of early stage liver issues can deteriorate the organ further to more complicated scenarios. Hence the need is to diagnose the condition early so that there is maximum potential of successful treatment of the condition.

When we consider conventional diagnostic methods like liver biopsies, there may be quite a few disadvantages associated with this technique. First off, it is invasive, thus requiring a surgical procedure to get the diagnostic done. It may come with rare but life-threatening complications during or after the procedure.

Additionally, with the rising occurrence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), it is simply unviable to conduct liver biopsies just for assessing liver condition and then prescribing the correct treatment regimen. This can place tremendous cost burden on patients, hospitals, and insurance providers.

The need for technology to provide minimally invasive/ non-invasive diagnostic measures

Under such scenarios, the demand has been steadily growing for more non-invasive methods of scanning the organ to know its health profile. Technology has stepped up to this demand and the result has been a range of non-invasive diagnostic measures that provide quicker and accurate results, minus the need for the patient to undergo invasive procedures as is the case with liver biopsy.

Here are three such technological solutions that have been instrumental in accurate and faster liver health diagnosis:

1 — Siemens ELF test

Liver Fibrosis denotes advanced stage of scar formation in liver tissues. If this is not diagnosed the right way, it can lead to severe liver complications like cirrhosis and even liver transplant in worst cases. It is vital that at this stage the right type of diagnostic measures are in place. This will help in an accurate analysis of the extent of scars, and provide guidance to the physicians to treat the patient displaying the condition

Credit: iQur/Simens

Fortunately, technology solutions like the ELF test (Enhanced Liver Fibrosis Test) from Siemens Healthineers have played a great part in getting the diagnostic done the smart way. These ELF markers can help diagnose patients with mild to moderate liver fibrosis.

With routine blood work, the ELF test can obtain an ELF score. On the basis of this score, the extent of damage done by fibrosis can be assessed. AS compared to other surgical procedures like liver biopsy, this type of test is considered minimally invasive. And the best part is that its results have proven to match the ones provided by liver biopsy.

2 — Fibroscan

The growing prevalence of liver diseases has led to the emergence of technological breakthroughs. Such solutions offer a viable alternative to surgical diagnostic procedures like liver biopsies. One such non-invasive method to gauge liver health is the Fibroscan.

Fibroscan in action.

This method checks the liver for stiffness. This, in turn, may provide guidance on the presence or extent of fibrosis (early stage scar formation on tissues) or cirrhosis (much more pronounced and damaging liver scarring). It also checks for the amount of fat in liver.

The three benefits of this method are

— It is completely non-invasive and uses ultrasound technology

— It is quicker and cheaper compared to traditional biopsies

— Painless measurement of liver health

3 — LiverMultiScan

This new technique comes up as a viable first-line test in place of the more complicated and surgical biopsies carried out on the liver. The fast and non-invasive method provides quick assessment and helps the physician to figure out the liver health and extent of scarring on liver tissues.

LiverMultiScan. Credit: Perspectum Diagnostics Ltd.

Studies done to assess its feasibility has found that almost 458 out of 1000 cases of liver biopsies can be avoided when this type of scanning is more prevalent. It also helps in grading the severity of liver damage so that the right line of treatment can be commenced for each patient. This is a better way instead of offering an off- the- shelf solution that may not have the desired impact on fibrosis or cirrhosis.

To sign off

Liver disease is increasing in numbers and relevance across the globe. The likelihood of success of the prescribed line of treatment will depend on how early the issue with liver is detected and how accurately the diagnosis is made. Conventional methods like liver biopsies were time consuming and provided a surgical approach to know the health of the liver.

To counter this challenge, technological solutions have come up in a big way. They help the physicians make quick and accurate diagnosis and range from minimally invasive like ELF, to completely non-invasive techniques like Fibroscan.