Can simple blood and anthropometric markers be used to detect change in liver fat?

Event Details

Date:

Friday, 19 May 2017

Time:

12:00 pm - 12:45 pm

Room:

219

UQ Location:

Human Movement Studies Building (St Lucia)

URL:

http://www.hms.uq.edu.au/

Event category(s):

Full Description:: Up to 1/3 of adults in Australia have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NAFLD is characterized by excess liver fat and is strongly linked with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
As there are currently no accepted pharmacological agents for the long-term management of NAFLD, lifestyle therapy is at the forefront of management.
A current issue in NAFLD management is that accurate quantification of liver fat via proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) is expensive (~$600/hr). Novel indices based on simple blood and anthropometric markers have been proposed for the prediction of liver fatness.
This talk will present findings from Dr Keating’s recent work examining the accuracy of these indices. These findings have implications for researchers and clinicians seeking to determine the efficacy of interventions using these biomarkers.

Dr Shelley Keating is an NHMRC Early Career Fellow at the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, The University of Queensland.