LiverMultiScan for clinical decision making in Autoimmune Hepatitis

"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."