Leading Liver Disease Researchers Present at EASL International Liver Congress™ 2019, Demonstrate Echosens FibroScan® as Optimal Screening Tool for Liver Disease

WALTHAM, Mass. & PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Echosens, an innovative high-technology company offering the FibroScan® family of products, today announces that distinguished researchers, notably Stephen Harrison, M.D., visiting professor of Hepatology, Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, and Jerome Boursier, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Medicine, Hepato-Gastroenterology Department of Angers University Hospital, and head of HIFIH laboratory, Angers University in France, will present studies supporting the value of FibroScan at EASL’s International Liver Congress™ , in Vienna, Austria, April 10-14, 2019. FibroScan will be included in over 163 abstracts including 18 oral presentations that will evaluate utilization of the non-invasive FibroScan® tool across a variety of liver disease etiologies and practice settings. An area of focus is the use of VCTE™ and CAP™ to efficiently screen and identify patients with active fibrotic nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH); to cost-effectively use the technology in the physician’s office; and to significantly improve detection of fibrosis in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients.

Dr. Harrison explains, “A FibroScan-based score combining liver stiffness, controlled attenuation parameter (CAP™) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) can efficiently screen for presence of at-risk fibrotic NASH. This non-invasive test is documented to quickly and cost effectively provide a quantitative assessment of liver stiffness and fat and can accurately identify patients eligible for potential pharmacologic therapy.”

He says this meeting furthers the worldwide understanding of liver research, enhances the clinical practice of liver disorders and educates those interested in hepatology. He points to over 2,000 peer-reviewed research publications which position FibroScan as the most widely studied tool for point of care liver assessment.

During the Congress, Dr. Harrison will also present seminal work on the prospective liver biopsy-based prevalence of NAFLD/NASH among a large middle-aged population, utilizing FibroScan, LiverMultiscan and magnetic resonance elastography (MRE). Additionally, he will present findings related to predicting the severity of hepatic steatosis and fibrosis by transient elastography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based techniques in adult patients with suspected NAFLD.

Attendees will hear an oral presentation by Dr. Boursier on April 14, 2019, showing external validation in NAFLD cohorts of a FibroScan-based score combining liver stiffness via VCTE™, CAP™ and AST to identify patients with active NASH (NAS>=4) and significant fibrosis (F>=2). The results of his study show that a simple score based on FibroScan LSM, CAP and AST demonstrated good performance in all NAFLD cohorts.

“I want to emphasize that FibroScan could be used in specialty and primary care settings to efficiently screen patients with active NASH (NAS≥4) and significant fibrosis (F≥2) for drug trials, as well as to identify patients eligible for treatment when the drugs currently evaluated in clinical trials will become available on the market” says Dr. Boursier.

Other presentations include:

• “Effectively reducing screen failure rate in a NAFLD clinical trial using a FibroScan based score combining liver stiffness, CAP and AST.” The Fibroscan-based score identified optimal cut-offs to significantly reduce screen failure rate with an acceptable missed case rate.
• “Combination of FibroScan and FibroMeter (FibroMeter VCTE) improves identification of patients with advanced fibrosis in patients with NAFLD.” FibroMeterVCTE performs well in the identification of patients with advanced fibrosis without compromising sensitivity.

About Echosens

Echosens, the developer of FibroScan®, is a world leader in non-invasive medical devices dedicated to the assessment of liver disease. Echosens offers a full range of point of care products and services supporting physicians management of patients with chronic liver diseases. With a wide-reaching international distribution network including France (Paris), the United States (Waltham) and China (Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing), Echosens has made FibroScan® available in over 80 countries. http://www2.echosens.com/AboutFibroScan.

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