Publications by authors named "Takahashi Hirokazu"
Background: Major society guidelines recommend transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) as the standard of care for intermediate-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. However, predicting treatment response remains challenging.
Aims: As artificial intelligence (AI) may predict therapeutic responses, this systematic review aims to assess the performance and effectiveness of radiomics and AI-based models in predicting TACE outcomes in patients with HCC.
Aim: In the PEMA-FL study in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), pemafibrate was shown to significantly decrease low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels. We aimed to investigate the mechanisms of pemafibrate-induced LDL-C reduction in patients with MASLD by conducting an additional sub-analysis of the PEMA-FL study.
Methods: The PEMA-FL study randomized 118 patients with MASLD to receive pemafibrate or placebo for 72 weeks.
Article Synopsis
- The study assessed the effectiveness of serum type 4 collagen 7S (COL4-7S) compared to the Enhanced Liver Fibrosis (ELF) score in detecting liver fibrosis in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).
- Among 1,368 patients, 794 were analyzed, revealing that both COL4-7S and ELF scores rise with increasing fibrosis, but COL4-7S showed significantly better performance for identifying advanced fibrosis (≥2) especially in diabetic patients.
- Overall, COL4-7S proved to be at least as effective as the ELF score in diagnosing advanced liver disease in MASLD patients.
Mac-2 binding protein glycosylation isomer (M2BPGi) is a liver fibrosis biomarker that originated in Japan and has been covered by health insurance for 10 years. M2BPGi is useful not only for liver fibrosis stage prediction but also for assessment of the degree of liver inflammation and prediction of hepatocellular carcinoma development. The usefulness of M2BPGi for assessing disease progression in patients with various chronic liver diseases has been demonstrated over the past decade in a large number of patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: New scores were developed to identify at-risk metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) using multiparametric MRI (mpMRI).
Materials And Methods: A prospective study was conducted on 176 patients with suspected or diagnosed metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) paired with an MR scan, vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE), and liver biopsy. Liver stiffness measurement (LSM) using magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), proton density fat fraction (PDFF), and mpMRI-based corrected T1 (cT1) were combined to develop a one-step strategy, named MPcT (MRE + PDFF + cT1, combined score), and a two-step strategy-MRE-based LSM followed by PDFF with cT1 (M-PcT, paired score) for diagnosing at-risk MASH.
Article Synopsis
- * The study collected and analyzed 1,600 posts from various countries, revealing that the most common topics included patients' journeys (92%), comorbidities (38%), and their interactions with healthcare professionals (26%).
- * Major findings indicated that unhealthy diets and obesity are significant risk factors, with fatigue and abdominal pain being prevalent symptoms; meanwhile, the disease has a considerable negative impact on patients' quality of life, especially for those with comorbidities and more severe conditions.
Backgrounds: People with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) frequently report fatigue. This symptom is associated with hepatic inflammation and fibrosis. FibroScan-aspartate aminotransferase (FAST) score is a noninvasive measurement tool that can be used to assess the severity of MASLD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- * Analysis of Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 data shows a geographical concentration of SUD issues in Europe and the Americas, with males being more affected than females.
- * The research emphasizes the urgent need for effective policies to address the substantial burden of SUDs among AYAs, particularly focusing on alcohol-related harms like injuries and violence.
Background: Climate change and the growing demand for agricultural water threaten global food security. Understanding water use characteristics of major crops from leaf to field scale is critical, particularly for identifying crop varieties with enhanced water-use efficiency (WUE) and stress tolerance. Traditional methods to assess WUE are either by gas exchange measurements at the leaf level or labor-intensive manual pot weighing at the whole-plant level, both of which have limited throughput.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, now known as metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), is a phenotype of the metabolic syndrome in the liver and is clearly associated with metabolic abnormalities such as hyperglycaemia and dyslipidaemia. Although the prevalence of MASLD is increasing worldwide, there is currently no consensus on the efficacy and safety of the drugs used to treat MASLD/metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). Pemafibrate, a selective peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha modulator, was designed to have higher peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alfa (PPARα) agonist activity and selectivity than existing PPARα agonists, and in development trials, without increasing creatinine levels, lipid parameters and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were significantly improved.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Aims: The clinical characteristics and risk factors involved in the development of liver fibrosis in the subtypes of steatotic liver disease (SLD) remain unknown. We examined the clinical characteristics of SLD subtypes using a large Japanese cohort.
Methods: We performed a cross-sectional analysis (total n = 108,446).
Background And Aims: Although numerous noninvasive diagnostic methods have been developed to predict liver fibrosis in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), they lack markers for predicting lobular inflammation, hepatocellular ballooning, or changes related to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). We examined serum cytokeratin 18 fragment (CK18F) as a noninvasive marker for predicting treatment response and "at-risk MASH" and "MASH resolution" in patients with MASLD.
Methods: One-hundred-and-ten patients with MASLD who underwent repeated biopsy were enrolled (age, 4 [0.
Objective Myosteatosis affects the pathogenesis of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and may be a potential therapeutic target. This study aimed to examine the effects of ipragliflozin on myosteatosis in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) and MASLD. Methods Patients were treated with ipragliflozin (IPR group) or a control (CTR group) for 72 weeks in a randomized trial.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Aims: The epidemiology of adult primary liver cancer continues to evolve, owing to the increasing prevalence of metabolic disease, rising alcohol consumption, advances in vaccination for HBV, and antiviral therapy for HCV. Disparities in care and the burden of liver cancer between populations persist. We assess trends in the burden of liver cancer and contributions by various etiologies across 204 countries and territories from 2010 to 2021.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExercise training ameliorates carbon tetrachloride-induced liver fibrosis and anxiety-like behaviors.
Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol
December 2024
Article Synopsis
- Chronic liver diseases, including cirrhosis, are linked with mood disorders like anxiety, and this study investigates how regular exercise can impact these anxiety-like behaviors in mice with liver fibrosis.
- The research involved male C57/BL6 mice subjected to liver fibrosis through carbon tetrachloride (CCl) and tested the anxiolytic effects of voluntary exercise using an elevated plus maze for assessment.
- Findings indicate that exercise reduced anxiety-like behaviors and liver fibrosis markers, suggesting that exercise may offer therapeutic benefits by enhancing brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels and decreasing neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) activity, particularly in the hippocampus.
Prevalence of Chronic Liver Disease in Cholangiocarcinoma: A Meta-Analysis.
Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol
October 2024
Article Synopsis
- Chronic liver disease is a significant risk factor for cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), but its prevalence among CCA patients was previously unclear.
- A meta-analysis included data from 118,068 CCA patients, finding that about 25% had chronic liver disease and over 10% had cirrhosis.
- The study revealed a stronger association between chronic liver disease and intrahepatic CCA compared to extrahepatic CCA, except for primary sclerosing cholangitis, which was linked to extrahepatic forms.
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to improve the prediction of liver-related events (LRE) in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) by combining the Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) index with genetic polymorphism data.
- Researchers enrolled 1,304 Japanese patients, identifying key genotypes associated with LRE while tracking outcomes over an 8.1-year follow-up period, during which 96 LREs occurred.
- The findings suggested that a two-step screening strategy using the FIB-4 index followed by genetic assessment effectively identifies high-risk patients, with notable differences in survival rates and LRE development across risk groups.
Article Synopsis
- Recent advancements in ultrasound elastography (UE) and ultrasound attenuation imaging (UA) allow for better detection of liver fibrosis and steatosis in patients with steatotic liver disease (SLD), which is common globally.
- A survey conducted among 275 medical facilities in Saga Prefecture revealed a 56% response rate, showing that most facilities recognized the importance of UE and UA for liver conditions, but actual usage was low (21% for UE and 12% for UA).
- The study concluded that despite the importance of these imaging techniques in liver cancer surveillance, awareness and availability of UE and UA in these facilities are lacking given the high prevalence of SLD.
Article Synopsis
- High-throughput phenotyping can streamline breeding cycles and reduce costs, focusing on biomass-related traits in soybean using UAV remote sensing and deep learning.
- In a 2018 field experiment with 198 soybean accessions, a convolutional neural network (CNN) was used to accurately estimate traits like dry weight and plant height from UAV-collected data.
- The study showed that deep learning could identify strong correlations between input data and phenotypic traits, highlighting the potential use of these insights in improving breeding practices.
Aims: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a common cause of death in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD). Therefore, CVD surveillance is important, but it is not well established. We evaluated the association between liver fibrosis, carotid artery atherosclerosis, and coronary artery stenosis in patients with MASLD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArticle Synopsis
- Rice plants develop an apoplastic barrier in their roots to limit oxygen loss during flooding, which helps maintain root growth in low-oxygen soils.
- Researchers tested the role of the Leaf Gas Film 1 (LGF1) gene in forming this barrier by comparing a rice mutant lacking LGF1, its wild type, and a variant with increased LGF1 expression.
- The study found that the mutant had a weaker barrier to oxygen loss, but restoring LGF1 function significantly improved barrier strength, linked to higher glycerol ester levels in root cells.
Article Synopsis
- Nonalcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) can lead to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), prompting a study of risk stratification methods using histological features and noninvasive markers in patients with liver biopsy-confirmed NAFLD or NASH.
- The study included 1389 patients and compared the predictive ability of histological factors and noninvasive models such as the aMAP score, FIB-4 index, and ALBI score, revealing that the aMAP score had the highest predictive power for HCC.
- The aMAP score and FIB-4 index were found to be superior to histological features for
Article Synopsis
- Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) is a major cause of liver disease, and changes in liver fat can be monitored using MRI proton-density-fat fraction (PDFF).
- A systematic review identified 39 clinical trials evaluating various drug treatments for MASH, focusing on their effectiveness in reducing liver fat as measured by MRI-PDFF.
- The study found aldafermin and pegozafermin to be the most effective therapies for reducing liver fat at 24 weeks, while other options like efinopegdutide and semaglutide also showed promising results for significant fat reduction.
Background & Aims: Patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)/metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) face a multifaceted disease burden which includes impaired health-related quality of life (HRQL) and potential stigmatization. We aimed to assess the burden of liver disease in patients with NAFLD and the relationship between experience of stigma and HRQL.
Methods: Members of the Global NASH Council created a survey about disease burden in NAFLD.
Article Synopsis
- The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness and tolerability of direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatments for hepatitis C virus (HCV) across different genotypes (GTs) in a global, real-world context, focusing particularly on GT3 and GT6.
- Researchers analyzed data from 15,849 chronic hepatitis C patients across Asia, North America, and Europe over a seven-year period, noting demographic factors such as age, sex, and prior treatment history.
- Results showed a high sustained virological response (SVR12) rate of 96.9% overall, with variances by genotype, highlighting that independent factors like advanced age, cirrhosis, and previous treatment failures affected treatment outcomes, while being