MDL doctor and liver specialist Ger Koek of Maastricht UMC+ is leading the research and is collaborating with Hasselt University. The research is being conducted in general practices in Maastricht (Doctors van Hier and Heer health center), Elsloo (Elsloo and Bandkeramiek medical center), Geulle GP practice and in various Belgian practices.
What is fatty liver?
Someone who does not exercise enough and eats too much unhealthy food will have to deal with an excessive supply of energy in the body. That this leads to weight gain is known to many people, but it also causes a build-up of fat in the liver. We call this fatty liver and can lead, among other things, to chronic liver inflammation with scarring. This can later develop into liver failure and liver cancer.
The flexible delivery
The liver is a flexible organ, with a large reserve capacity. As a result, fatty liver often only surface in an advanced stage, also because there are few characteristic complaints. This flexibility is also an advantage: it appears that the fatty liver can recover well if the patient makes lifestyle changes and loses at least 5 percent weight.
Research
Research leader Ger Koek wants to better map fatty liver: “More and more people with a western lifestyle are dealing with fatty liver. The problem is getting bigger and bigger, but receives less attention than other lifestyle diseases such as type 2 diabetes. learn more about the origin and course of fatty liver.”
Find patients and treat them faster
Koek and his colleagues ultimately want to study 1500 high-risk patients with conditions such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Their data is collected anonymously, analyzed and compared with data from other studies. Ger Koek: “We want to use this to identify which patients have the highest risk of developing a more serious liver disease due to fatty liver disease. If that succeeds, we can find patients faster to start treatment. That is our goal: treat fatty liver faster or eventually even occur.”
By: National Care Guide
–
