LiverMultiScan for clinical decision making in Autoimmune Hepatitis

“该项目旨在改善自身免疫性肝炎（AIH）患者的标准护理。AIH是一种不明原因的慢性肝脏炎症性疾病，如果不治疗，可导致肝功能衰竭和死亡。虽然有一个有效的治疗类固醇和药物抑制免疫系统，这些都不是完美的，与许多患者经历复发和不希望的副作用（如体重增加，睡眠障碍，骨质疏松症，眼睛问题）.因此，尽可能减少剂量。因此，AIH患者需要终身治疗和监测。肝活检是评估肝脏健康的金标准，但风险大、不准确、昂贵且痛苦，因此不是治疗监测的首选。血液检查可以识别肝脏何时发炎，但对可能表明患者病情可能恶化的微小变化不够敏感。AIH中更好的治疗监测有可能减少复发或“突发”的负面后果，减少未检测到的长期炎症进展为肝硬化的机会，并更有效地告知治疗，可能减少副作用。它也有可能减少对侵入性疼痛和风险活检的需求。Perspectum Diagnostics横跨牛津大学，将MRI技术商业化，用于诊断肝脏疾病。其旗舰产品LiverMultiScan是一种非侵入性程序，可以在简单的15分钟扫描中量化肝脏的健康状况。LMS已在全球范围内成功用于非酒精性脂肪肝的临床试验。在这个项目中，Perspectum将与国王学院医院NHS信托肝脏科AIH领域的国际公认专家一起，解决MRI在AIH患者中量化肝纤维化和炎症的效用，旨在改善患者护理和降低医疗成本。该项目的主要目的是演示如何将LiverMultiScan添加到AIH患者的标准护理路径中可能允许更好的治疗和准确的类固醇剂量，从而防止肝功能衰竭和相关的NHS费用。"

"This project aims to improve the standard care of patients with Autoimmune Hepatitis (AIH). AIH is a chronic inflammatory disease of the liver of unknown cause that, if untreated, can lead to liver failure, and death. Whislt there is an effective treatment with steriods and medicines that supress the immune system, these are not perfect, with many patients experiencing relapses and undesired side effects (such as weight gain, sleep disturbance, osteoporosis, eye problems). Efforts are therefore made to reduce doses where possible. As a result AIH patients require lifelong treatment and monitoring.Liver biopsy is the gold standard for evaluating the health of the liver but is risky, imprecise, expensive and painful, and therefore not a favoured option for treatment monitoring. Blood tests can identify when the liver is inflammed, but are not sensitive enough to small changes that might indicate a patients condition is likely to worsen. Better treatment monitoring in AIH has the potential to reduce the negative consequences of a relapse or 'flare', to reduce the chances of progression to cirrhosis from undetected long-term inflammation and to inform treatment more effectively, potentially reducing side effects. It also has the potential to reduce the need to invasive painful and risky biopsies.Perspectum Diagnostics span out of the University of Oxford to commercialise MRI technology for diagnosing liver disease. Its flagship product, LiverMultiScan, is a non-invasive procedure that can quantify the health of liver in a simple 15-minute scan. LMS has been successfully adopted worldwide for clinical trials investiagating non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. In this project, Perspectum will join with the internationally-recognised experts in the field of AIH in the department of hepatology at Kings College Hospital NHS trust, to address the utility of MRI to quanitfy liver fibrosis and inflammation in AIH patients, aiming to improve patient care and reduce healthcare costs.The main aim of the project is to demonstrate how adding a LiverMultiScan into the standard care pathway for patients with AIH may allow better treatment and accurate dosing of steroids thus preventing liver failure and associated NHS costs."