Predictive Health Intelligence today announced a promising new way to identify people with serious liver disease earlier, using existing NHS blood test data. The findings come from the LiveWell study, with results being presented at a major European liver congress this week.
The study looked at a new approach called the Cumulative Liver Damage Index, or “CLDI”, delivered using a part-NHS owned technology called hepatoSIGHT.
Unlike standard liver tests, which only show what is happening at one moment in time, CLDI looks at how liver damage has built up over many years. This could help doctors identify people at risk much earlier, before they become seriously unwell.
Liver disease is one of the fastest-growing causes of death in the UK. Death rates have increased more than fourfold since the 1970s, even while many other major diseases have improved. There are many causes of liver disease and anyone can be affected, including those who never drink alcohol.
One of the biggest challenges is that liver disease is often silent for many years. Many people do not know they are ill until the disease has already become advanced.
Currently, there is no national screening programme for liver disease. Existing methods can be expensive, difficult to scale, and are often not accurate enough to identify the right patients early.
Dr Tim Jobson, NHS Gastroenterologist, and Medical Director of Predictive Health Intelligence, said: “After more than 20 years as an NHS gastroenterologist, I have seen too many patients whose liver disease was only found once serious damage had already been done.
“Chronic liver disease develops silently over many years, so it makes sense that we should look at the pattern of liver injury over time, not just single blood tests in isolation.
“These findings show that using routine NHS data in this way could help us identify people at higher risk much earlier and create a simpler, more targeted pathway for assessment before advanced disease develops.”
The LiveWell study tested whether CLDI could improve this.
Researchers used existing NHS blood test results to find people who might be at higher risk of significant liver disease. Participants were then invited for further liver assessment.
The study recruited 994 participants from a single NHS site in less than a year.
The results showed that CLDI was much more effective at identifying people with clinically significant liver disease than commonly used first-line investigations.
Importantly, this approach could also simplify things for patients.
Instead of multiple rounds of testing, patients identified as high risk could potentially be referred directly for a liver scan, reducing unnecessary appointments and helping NHS services focus resources where they are most needed.
During the study, patients identified using CLDI were invited for a non-invasive liver scan, provided by Tawazun Health, and a genetic profile, provided by Sano Genetics.
“This study is a meaningful step forward for people living with undiagnosed liver disease.
“The fact that CLDI can identify clinically significant fibrosis this accurately, using data that already exists in NHS systems, changes what earlier identification can realistically look like at scale,” said Charlotte Guzzo, Chief Operating Officer of Sano Genetics.
“We are proud to have supported this work and excited to see where the larger validation study takes it.”
Researchers believe this could represent an important step towards earlier, more targeted identification of liver disease at population scale.
“These findings are an exciting and important step forward, showing how patients can know more, sooner, and have a better chance to act before serious damage is done,” said Larry R. Holden, President and CEO of the Global Liver Institute
“For patients and families, earlier identification means more opportunity, more informed choices, and more hope. This is exactly the kind of progress we need if we are going to turn the tide on chronic liver disease.”
hepatoSIGHT is currently being expanded across more parts of South West of England, with further NHS rollout planned in 2027.
A larger follow-up study involving 8,000 patients across multiple sites is already underway, with results expected later this summer.
This work was supported by Innovate UK Grant Number iUK 10073169.
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