S5 - E22.4 - Healthy Livers, Healthy Lives: The Role Of The Updated EASL MASLD Guidelines And Big Data

Surfing the MASH Tsunami

Healthy Livers, Healthy Lives Chair Jeff Lazarus joins Jörn Schattenberg, Louise Campbell and Roger Green to discuss the value of the updated EASL/EASD/EASO MASLD clinical practice guidelines and consider the role of Big Data in early MASLD screening.
Roger asks Jeff whether he considers the updated MASLD CPG a step forward. Jeff praises the guidelines as "amazing" and suggests that one reason is that EASD and EASO are partners in drafting and promoting them.
Roger's next question to Jeff addresses the idea that Big Data can provide a set of common variables that will outperform FIB-4 in predicting which patients are at high risk of MASLD or MASH, as Hannes Hagstrom discussed in Episode 17 this year. Jeff believes we can use more data than only the FIB-4 today but that, in the long run,we need better biomarkers to simplify the system. Jörn adds that having historical blood tests will allow for that kind of analysis, which should be superior to FIB-4. Jeff points out the challenge: not all variables are collected in each country. Bottom line: the solution must be simple and realistic to apply in practice in different countries.