A patient's stool sample, containing information about the gut microbiome, can be used to diagnose nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, according to a study published in the journal Cell Metabolism.
NAFLD is a condition that can lead to liver cancer and cirrhosis. The disease is not typically diagnosed until it's entered into its advanced stages. To diagnose the condition, clinicians must rely upon an invasive liver biopsy.
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For the study, a researcher team examined stool samples from 86 patients previously diagnosed with the liver disease. Among them, 72 had mild NAFD and 14 had advanced cases. After sequencing the samples, researchers were able to identify 37 bacterial species that could be used to distinguish between advanced and mild cases of NAFD with a 93.7 percent accuracy rate. Researchers then conducted an assessment of the gut microbiome of 16 patients with advanced NAFD and 33 healthy controls. The team identified nine bacterial species allowing them to distinguish between the patients with NAFD and the healthy controls with 88 percent accuracy.
"We believe our study sets the stage for a potential stool-based test to detect advanced liver fibrosis based simply on microbial patterns, or at least help us minimize the number of patients who have to undergo liver biopsies," said Karen Nelson, PhD, president of the J. Craig Venter Institute in La Jolla, Calif., and the study's senior author.
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