SYDNEY, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Researchers in Australia have developed a new diagnostic tool that could help doctors detect serious liver disease earlier and more accurately, potentially transforming care for millions at risk.
The new diagnostic tool, called the Fibroblast Activation Protein (FAP)-Index, could significantly improve how doctors identify people at risk of serious liver damage caused by metabolic fatty liver disease, said a statement from Australia's Centenary Institute on Thursday.
Metabolic fatty liver disease often shows no early symptoms but can progress to liver scarring, namely fibrosis, and eventually to liver cirrhosis and liver failure. Affecting one in three Australians, with cases projected to exceed 7 million by 2030, identifying high-risk patients remains a major clinical challenge, it said.
The FAP-Index combines a simple blood test measuring FAP with routinely collected clinical information to generate a more precise assessment of a patient's risk of liver scarring, they said.
FAP is a biomarker directly involved in the biological process that drives fibrosis, said the study published in the Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
The team found that adding the FAP-Index to existing first-line blood test risk scores reduced uncertain results by up to 70 percent compared with current screening tools alone, improving diagnostic precision while cutting unnecessary specialist referrals and costly follow-up investigations.
Study's first author Ziqi Vincent Wang, a PhD student at the Centenary Institute and the University of Sydney, said the tool is designed to be simple, affordable and practical for use in primary care. ■