Results for search "Liver Disease: Misc.".
04 Dec
People who have had COVID-19 may face an increased risk of liver stiffness, researchers say.
27 Jul
Patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease have a significantly greater risk of developing heart failure, researchers say.
A new liver dialysis device might soon be able to save patients on the edge of death from liver failure, early clinical trial results show.
The DIALIVE device safely improved organ function and alleviated symptoms in patients with acute-on-chronic liver failure, compared with others receiving standard care, the researchers reported.
If the device proves out in a larger trial, it cou...
About 4.5 million adults in the United States have liver disease. If they're looking for information about their condition, they'd be wise to look beyond TikTok, new research suggests.
About 40% of posts about liver disease on the social media platform are false or misleading, pushing claims about fad diets and detox drinks, according to a researcher from the University of Arizona College...
Genetic analysis of Ludwig van Beethoven's hair has provided new clues into the cause of the great composer's death in 1827 — as well as evidence of a family scandal.
The analysis revealed that Beethoven suffered from a hepatitis B infection that could have contributed to his death from liver disease.
Researchers found DNA evidence of hepatitis B virus in a lock of hair taken from...
Acetaminophen, a popular over-the-counter medication for millions struggling with pain and fever, can also be found in prescription painkillers that combine acetaminophen and an opioid into one pill.
The problem? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has long known that high dosages of acetaminophen (Tylenol) can harm the liver. So, in 2011 the FDA set new safety limits on exactly how muc...
Often, patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease are advised to lose weight, but that can be hard to do and takes precious time.
Now, researchers report they have found another strategy can help lower liver fat in people with this condition, which affects nearly 30% of the global population.
Exercise of about 150 minutes each week at a moderate intensity — the exact re...
Do your liver a favor and steer clear of fast food, new research urges.
People with obesity or diabetes who consumed 20% or more of their daily calories from fast food had severely elevated levels of fat in their liver compared to those who ate less fast food or none.
Even the general U.S. population had moderate increases in liver fat when fast food made up one-fifth or more of the...
Patients with an incurable, genetic liver disease have new hope after an animal study showed that a single drug could reverse its effects.
Alagille syndrome is caused by a mutation that prevents the formation and regeneration of bile ducts in the liver.
About 4,000 babies a year are born with this condition. Often, they require a liver transplant, which is not always available. With...
Quitting alcohol can help reduce complications of liver cirrhosis, even in patients who have advanced disease. It can also help them live longer, new research shows.
"Our results clearly show that all patients with alcohol-related liver cirrhosis who maintain sustained abstinence from alcohol not only suffer complications of liver cirrhosis significantly less frequently, but also live co...
Liver disease can affect heart health and that includes even early forms of the disease, a new study reveals.
While it had previously been known that nonalcoholic fatty liver disease was associated with cardiovascular death, the relationship was poorly understood, said researcher Dr. Alan Kwan. He is a c...
COVID-19 may harm the liver, a small study suggests.
The virus appears to increase liver stiffness, a sign of potential long-term injury, but it's too early to tell if that portends serious liver disease, the researchers said.
"COVID infections have been observed to cause inflammation and damage to a number of different organ systems like the brain, the intestines and the liver...
Some human livers are tougher than others, lasting more than 100 cumulative years between the organ's original host and a transplant recipient, a new study discovers.
Understanding what makes these livers so resilient could help improve the donor pool by paving the way ...
Thousands of people die every year while waiting for a liver transplant. Living-donor transplantation holds the potential to save many of these lives, yet remains underused in the United States.
During the procedure, a portion of a donor's liver is removed and transplanted into a person with liver disease. The donor's remaining liver returns to its normal size and capacity within a few mo...
Less than one-third of people with hepatitis C get treatment for this potentially deadly, but curable, infection within a year of their diagnosis, a new government report warns.
Spread by contact with blood from an infected person, hepatitis C is a viral disease that inflames the liver and has no symptoms at first. ...
About 30% of adults around the world have a buildup of fat in the liver, a condition called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
Now an international team of researchers has linked that condition to a heightened risk of heart failure.
NAFLD, as it is called for short, is increasing rapidly because of rising rates of overweight and obesity, the researchers noted.
They reviewed ...
Americans may have a collective drinking problem, made worse by the obesity epidemic, new research suggests. The new study found that deaths from alcoholic cirrhosis have more than tripled in 20 years.
In 1999, alcoholic cirrhosis -- an advanced form of alcohol-related...
As health experts around the world try to understand why nearly 200 children in 12 countries have fallen seriously ill with severe hepatitis, doctors in Alabama are investigating nine such cases in that state.
In each case, seemingly healthy kids ended up in hospital with acute liver inflammation.
What's going on ...
The World Health Organization said it is investigating an outbreak of acute hepatitis among children that now involves 11 countries, including the United States.
Among the 169 reported cases, at least one child has died from this inflammation of the liver and 17 children needed liver transplants, the WHO said Saturday in a
As Americans stepped up their drinking during the COVID-19 pandemic, liver disease and transplants surged.
Between March 2020 and January 2021, the number of U.S. patients with alcohol-associated liver disease who received a new liver or were wait-listed for a transplant was 50% higher than pre-pandemic projections, researchers say.
Alcohol abuse is a known cause of liver disease. But one in four adults worldwide has a liver condition not connected to drinking that ups the risk of heart disease, according to an American Heart Association scientific statement.
Women with long or irregular periods are at increased risk for a serious condition called nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, according to a new study.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a chronic disease in which excess fat builds up in the liver. It affects about 24% of U.S. adults, according to the March 3 report in the
The early months of the COVID-19 pandemic brought a big jump in hospitalizations for life-threatening alcoholic hepatitis at a Detroit health system, new research shows.
Alcoholic hepatitis is a liver disease caused by heavy drinking, and these findings add to mounting evidence that many Americans t...
It's clear that COVID-19 has killed many hundreds of thousands of people in the United States. Less clear is its impact on other health issues, which will be felt in the years to come.
Liver disease is projected to be one of those, with 8,000 additional deaths from
More older folks are winding up on liver transplant waiting lists than ever before, as obesity and alcoholism supersede hepatitis C as the main cause of liver failure in the United States.
The percentage of liver transplant candidates aged 65 or older rose from 9% in the early 2000s to 23% by 2020, researchers found. Most seniors' liver failure is due to fatty liver disease, in which exce...
Weight-loss surgery sliced the risk of severe liver disease or liver cancer in obese people with fatty liver disease, a new study finds.
It included more than 1,100 patients with an aggressive type of fatty liver disease. Patients who had weight-loss (bariatric) surgery had a nearly 90% lower risk of advanced liver disease, liver cancer or related death over the next decade, The New Y...
All U.S. adults younger than 60 should be vaccinated against hepatitis B, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommended Wednesday.
Until now, the shots were recommended only for certain groups of adults, including prisoners, health care workers, international travelers, people with diabetes and certain other conditions, and those who inject drugs or who have multiple sexual...
Liver disease is usually associated with alcoholism or hepatitis, but obesity and diabetes are becoming an even more dire threat for potentially fatal liver damage, a new study reveals.
In fact, advanced fatty liver disease increases a person's risk of death by nearly sevenfold, according to a new report.
But it's a silent killer -- by the time you develop symptoms related to fatty...
Black American liver transplant recipients have a lower survival rate than Hispanic or white patients, and a new study suggests that alcohol-related liver disease and insurance coverage are key reasons.
"Our findings are a huge wake-up call that physicians and other health care professionals need to do better in delivering equitable care," said study leader Dr. Brian Lee, a liver transpla...
Black Americans with cirrhosis -- late-stage liver disease -- are much less likely to receive a liver transplant and more likely to die than white patients, new research reveals.
For the study, researchers at Northwestern Medicine analyzed data from all cirrhosis patients, regardless of transplant eligibility, at seven large liver centers in Chicago.
Compared to white patients...
Want to be good to your liver? Pour yourself another cup o' joe.
British researchers report that coffee of all kinds may reduce your risk for chronic liver disease.
Whether your java jolt is caffeinated or decaffeinated, ground or instant, makes no difference in its apparent power to ward off all sorts of liver disease -- as long as you have three to four cups a day, researchers say...
Methamphetamine users are at increased risk for physical and mental health problems as well as other substance use disorders, new research shows.
Meth is an illegal and highly addictive stimulant drug that can harm organs such as the heart, lungs, liver and neurological system, and injecting it can increase the risk of infectious diseases, the researchers noted.
Their analysis of da...
Many people drank more to cope with the stress of the coronavirus pandemic and the restrictions it placed on daily life, and now a new study suggests that all of this drinking is causing a serious spike in alcohol-related diseases.
"Incidence of hospitalizations for alcohol-related gastrointestinal (GI) and liver disease increased quite dramatically since the beginning of the COVID-19 loc...
Long-term organ damage appears to be common in hospitalized COVID-19 patients after they've recovered and been discharged, British researchers report.
One U.S. expert who read over the report said she's seen the same in her practice.
"This study proves that the damage done is not just to the lungs, but can affect the heart, the brain and the kidneys, as well," said Dr. Mangala Naras...
About one in five Americans waiting for a liver transplant dies before getting the organ. Their odds might be better if more people knew they could donate a portion of their liver in a process called living liver donation.
Doctors at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., want to raise awareness of these living liver transplants.
"About 12,000 to 13,000 people are on the liver transp...
A small study suggests that a new procedure that treats part of the intestine just beyond the stomach may allow people with type 2 diabetes to safely stop taking insulin.
The procedure -- which resurfaces the duodenum -- was combined with a popular kind of diabetes medication called GLP-1 receptor agonists (such as Victoza, Trulicity, Ozempic) and counseling on lifestyle factors, such a...
Every summer seems to bring fresh warnings of toxic algae blooming in local ponds, lakes and waterways.
These toxic blooms are known to be dangerous to human and animal health, but a new study suggests they might be even more harmful than previously thought.
A single massive blue-green algae bloom in Florida's Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River flowed into the Gulf...
The coronavirus pandemic has affected all areas of medical care, and a new study finds it has delayed potentially life-saving organ transplants.
Across the United States, transplants from deceased donors dropped 51% from early March to early April, amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the researchers found. In France, meanwhile, those procedures plummeted 91%.
Experts said th...
Doctors thought they had a fairly common scenario in front of them: A patient with advanced liver disease who needed help for her alcohol abuse. Then they discovered her own bladder was making the alcohol.
The doctors, at the University of Pittsburgh, say it's a previously unrecognized variant of so-called auto-brewery syndrome. ABS, which has been reported sporadically over the years...
Americans are drinking themselves to death at ever-increasing rates, with women in particular hitting the bottle hard, a new study shows.
The rate of alcohol-induced deaths among women increased between 3.1% and 3.6% a year from 2000 to 2016, while deaths among men increased 1.4% to 1.8% each year, according to the findings.
What's worse, the rates have accel...
Researchers report they have developed a machine that can repair injured livers and keep them alive outside the body for up to a week.
They said the machine could one day increase the number of livers available for transplant and save the lives of many people with severe liver diseases or cancer.
Until now, it was only possible to store livers safely outside the body for a f...
The popular herbal supplement kratom may cause liver damage, researchers warn.
Kratom is widely available in smoke shops and online. It's a botanical product made from Mitragyna speciosa, a tropical evergreen tree found in Southeast Asia. At low doses, it's a stimulant. At high doses, it has an opioid-like effect.
Use of kratom has risen sharply since the start of...
A new "supercooling" technique can triple the length of time a donor liver can be preserved before transplantation, researchers say.
The new method -- which cools the liver to 21.2 degrees Fahrenheit without freezing it -- could make significantly more livers available for transplant.
Currently, a donor liver is stored on ice in a preservative solution at temperatures betwee...
Taking the hepatitis C drugs Mavyret, Zepatier or Vosevi can trigger rare cases of severe liver problems or liver failure in patients who already have moderate-to-severe liver impairment, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned Wednesday.
The agency has identified 63 cases of worsening liver function, some resulting in liver failure or death, among patients taking the drugs.
...No matter how tired you get during your pregnancy, a new animal study suggests that countering your fatigue with too much coffee might harm your baby.
Female rats that were given caffeine during pregnancy had offspring with lower birth weights, altered growth and stress hormone levels, and impaired liver development.
How much coffee is too much?
The findings sugges...
The popular weed killer Roundup might be linked to liver disease, a new study suggests.
A group of patients suffering from liver disease had elevated urine levels of glyphosate, the primary weed-killing ingredient in Roundup, according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
"We found those patients who had more severe disease had higher levels of [...
In a North American first, an anonymous living liver donation led to a rare paired living liver donor exchange in Canada last summer that saved the lives of two people with failing livers.
Kelly Bryan, 38, donated 70% of her liver to an adult stranger, Muhammad Khan, who needed a liver transplant. Then that recipient's wife, Hina Khan, donated more than half her liver to another s...
She thought red yeast supplements would be a natural way to lower her cholesterol. What could be easier?
Instead, the 64-year-old woman landed in the hospital with acute liver damage that her doctors say was likely caused by taking the over-the-counter product.
"Many people are cautious to use [prescription] medications because of potential side effects, and rightly so," but...
Millions of hepatitis C cases and related deaths could be prevented, but it will require a significant investment, researchers say.
In the first study to model such measures worldwide, the authors concluded that sweeping prevention, screening and treatment efforts could prevent 15.1 million new hepatitis C infections and 1.5 million cirrhosis and liver cancer deaths by 2030.
A large number of U.S. cancer patients with hepatitis B and C don't know they have the virus, which can cause life-threatening complications during some cancer treatments, researchers say.
The findings suggest screening for hepatitis B and C may be appropriate in community cancer clinics, according to investigators from the SWOG Cancer Research Network, an international group funded b...
The percentage of U.S. liver transplant recipients with alcohol-associated liver disease (ALD) doubled over 15 years, but significant regional variations remain, a new study finds.
ALD has replaced hepatitis C as the most common reason for U.S. liver transplants. One reason is that hepatitis C rates have decreased due to antiviral therapy. But a more likely cause for the change is the...
Infection with the hepatitis C virus can cause liver disease and even liver cancer. But once found, the virus can be cured, so screening is vital for those at risk, health experts say.
For hepatitis A and B, preventive vaccines exist, but there is none for hepatitis C.
"We can eliminate the virus and keep people from developing liver disease," said Dr. James Spicher, an inte...