Commentary
Identifying patients with high-risk-NASH who are candidates for pharmacologic therapy remains a challenge. K. Sugimoto et al. (Tokyo Medical University, Japan) aimed to develop a score to identify patients with a NAFLD activity score of 4 or greater and clinically significant fibrosis. In this cross-sectional study, the most predictive model combined three ultrasound markers: liver stiffness, attenuation coefficient, and dispersion slope. It showed a positive predictive value of 86.5% and a negative predictive value of 87.5% for high-risk NASH in the derivation sample. In conclusion, for the authors, a score combining three ultrasound markers may be useful for non-invasive identification of patients with high-risk non-alcoholic steatohepatitis for inclusion in clinical trials and pharmacologic therapy.
