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Khalid Alswat,1 Faisal M Sanai,2 Waleed Al-hamoudi,1 Mona Ismail,3 Yaser Dahlan,2 Hamdan Saleh AlGhamdi,4,5 Ibrahim Altraif,4,5 Abduljaleel Alalwan,4,5 Mohamed MA Babatin,6 Saleh A Alqahtani7,8 1Liver Disease Research Center, Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 2Gastroenterology Unit, Department of Medicine, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 3Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, King Fahd Hospital of the University, College of Medicine, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia; 4King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 5Hepatology Division, Department of Hepatobiliary Sciences and Organs Transplant Center, King Abdulaziz Medical City of National Guard, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 6Gastroenterology Unit, Department of Medicine, King Fahad Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; 7Liver Transplant Center, King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; 8Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USACorrespondence: Khalid AlswatLiver Disease Research Center, Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2925(59), Riyadh, 11461, Saudi ArabiaTel +966114670810Fax +966114672403Email kalswat@ksu.edu.saBackground and Aims: The prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is increasing in Saudi Arabia (SA), but descriptions of the clinical and metabolic characteristics of these patients are limited. The present study aims to fill this gap.Methods: Demographic, clinical, and laboratory data of all NAFLD patients from 2009 to 2019 were retrieved from the Systematic Observatory Liver Disease Registry (SOLID) [n=832 (337 males; 495 females); mean (± standard deviation, SD) age was 42.6± 13.6 years; mean body mass index (BMI) was 35.0± 9.3kg/m2]. Non-invasive surrogate scores of fibrosis (eg AST to Platelet Ratio Index (APRI), Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4), and NAFLD fibrosis (NFS) scores) were calculated and analyzed. In addition, data from NAFLD patients with normal and high alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were compared using two different methods: the standard laboratory reference range which defines normal as ALT< 61 IU/L, and the range proposed by a recent national study which sets upper limits of normal ALT at 33 IU/l for men and 22 IU/l for women.Results: Hyperlipidemia was the most common comorbidity (41.7%), followed by type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) (35.3%) and hypertension (28.4%). Prevalence of advanced fibrosis varied widely across definitions [FIB-4, N=19 (2.5%); APRI, N=21 (2.8%); NFS, N=62 (8.6%)] and exhibited sexual dimorphism with males having worse metabolic characteristics. NAFLD patients with normal ALT were more likely to be older, female, have a lower BMI, and have a higher prevalence of cirrhosis, DM, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and renal dysfunction.Conclusion: Patients with NAFLD have metabolic characteristics associated with several comorbidities, including NAFLD patients with normal ALT. Mechanistic studies are needed to examine and analyze complex, interactive effects between sex, age, and other factors that may accelerate NAFLD disease progression.Keywords: non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, non-invasive biomarkers of fibrosis, Systematic Observatory Liver Disease Registry, Saudi Arabia

The 69th World Health Assembly endorsed the Global Health Sector Strategy for Viral Hepatitis, embracing a goal to eliminate hepatitis infection as a public health threat by 2030. This was followed by the World Health Organization's (WHO) global targets for the care and management of hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections. These announcements and targets were important in raising awareness and calling for action; however, tracking countries’ progress towards these elimination goals has provided insights to the limitations of these targets. The existing targets compare a country's progress relative to its 2015 values, penalizing countries who started their programmes prior to 2015, countries with a young population, or countries with a low prevalence. We recommend that (1) WHO simplify the hepatitis elimination targets, (2) change to absolute targets and (3) allow countries to achieve these disease targets with their own service coverage initiatives that will have the maximum impact. The recommended targets are as follows: reduce HCV new chronic cases to ≤5 per 100000, reduce HBV prevalence among 1-year-olds to ≤0.1%, reduce HBV and HCV mortality to ≤5 per 100000, and demonstrate HBV and HCV year-to-year decrease in new HCV- and HBV-related HCC cases. The objective of our recommendations is not to lower expectations or diminish the hepatitis elimination standards, but to provide clearer targets that recognize the past and current elimination efforts by countries, help measure progress towards true elimination, and motivate other countries to follow suit.

[No abstract available].

Context: Organ donation is an optimal solution for patients with certain conditions who benefit from transplantation such as liver cirrhosis. The organs come from living and brain-dead donors, who opt to donate parts of their bodies to treat others. This serves to treat and improve the outcome to those in need; however, the awareness in this regard is unclear. Aims: This study aimed to assess the attitude and perceptions towards organ donation and the concept of brain death in the population of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Settings and Design: A cross-sectional quantitative design was used. The study was conducted at four large malls in different geographical areas. Data collection was done at random times during the day. Subjects and Methods: A self-administered questionnaire was designed to examine the sociodemographic data. A 4-item questionnaire was developed to assess the attitude and perception of organ donation and brain death. Statistical Analysis Used: Data were entered and analysed using SPSS v21. Descriptive statistics are presented as frequencies and percentages for the categorical variables and mean ± standard deviation for numerical variables. Results: The study included 409 participants from different sociodemographic backgrounds. Over 60% were able to identify the correct definition of brain death and 68.1% stated that they would like to donate their organs in case of brain death. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the population has an acceptable understanding of the concept of brain death and that they are willing to donate in cases of brain death. It also shows an excellent understanding of the religious aspect, but with poor family and friends' communication regarding the subject.

Background We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of aspartate aminotransferase (AST)-to-platelet ratio index (APRI), fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4), AST/alanine aminotransferase (ALT) ratio (AAR), and age-platelet index (API) for significant fibrosis (Metavir F2–4) in low-replicative (HBV DNA 0.05) for identifying F2–4 fibrosis in low and high-replicative patients. Higher specificities were seen at the lowest cut-offs in low vs. high-replicative states for APRI (≥0.5, 98% vs. 68.9%), AAR (84.3% vs. 76.6%), FIB-4 (≥1.45, 97.5% vs. 87.8%) and API (>4, 94.8% vs. 93.8%). At ROC-defined thresholds, APRI (≥0.33), AAR (≥0.93), FIB-4 (≥0.70) and API (>2) showed greater AUROCs for F2–4 diagnosis in low replicative (0.80, 0.62, 0.81 and 0.71, respectively) vs. high-replicative patients (0.73, 0.52, 0.67 and 0.69, respectively). Conclusion All 4 biomarkers in both, low and high-replicative HBV demonstrate modest accuracy for fibrosis diagnosis at conventional cut-offs. Lowering the cut-offs may increase the diagnostic relevance of these biomarkers, particularly for APRI and FIB-4 in low-replicative disease. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12876-017-0658-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background/Aims: Around 101,000 individuals are estimated to be viremic for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in 2014; however, only about 20% have been diagnosed. We aim to assess baseline epidemiology, disease burden, and evaluate strategies to eliminate HCV in KSA. Materials and Methods: The infected population and disease progression were modeled using age- and gender-defined cohorts to track HCV incidence, prevalence, hepatic complications, and mortality. Baseline assumptions and transition probabilities were extracted from the literature. The impacts of two scenarios on HCV-related disease burden were considered through increases in treatment efficacy alone or treatment and diagnosis. Results: In 2030, it is estimated by the base scenario that viremic prevalence will increase to 103,000 cases, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to 470, decompensated and compensated cirrhosis cases to 1,300 and 15,400, respectively, and liver-related mortality to 670 deaths. Using high efficacy treatment alone resulted in 2030 projection of 80,700 viremic cases, 350 HCC cases, 480 liver-related deaths, and 850 and 11,500 decompensated and compensated cirrhosis cases, respectively. With an aggressive treatment strategy, in 2030 there will be about 1,700 viremic cases, 1 HCC case, about 20 liver-related deaths, and 5 and 130 cases of decompensated and compensated cirrhosis, respectively. Delaying this strategy by one year would result in 360 additional deaths by 2030. Conclusions: HCV in KSA remains constant, and cases of advanced liver disease and mortality continue to rise. Considered increases in treatment efficacy and number treated would have a significantly greater impact than increased treatment efficacy alone. The projected impact will facilitate disease forecasting, resource planning, and strategies for HCV management. Increased screening and diagnosis would likely be required as part of a national strategy.

WOS: 000426979400014, PubMed ID: 28404132, Background The 69th World Health Assembly approved the Global Health Sector Strategy to eliminate hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection by 2030, which can become a reality with the recent launch of direct acting antiviral therapies. Reliable disease burden estimates are required for national strategies. This analysis estimates the global prevalence of viraemic HCV at the end of 2015, an update of-and expansion on-the 2014 analysis, which reported 80 million (95% CI 64-103) viraemic infections in 2013. Methods We developed country-level disease burden models following a systematic review of HCV prevalence (number of studies, n=6754) and genotype (n=11 342) studies published after 2013. A Delphi process was used to gain country expert consensus and validate inputs. Published estimates alone were used for countries where expert panel meetings could not be scheduled. Global prevalence was estimated using regional averages for countries without data. Findings Models were built for 100 countries, 59 of which were approved by country experts, with the remaining 41 estimated using published data alone. The remaining countries had insufficient data to create a model. The global prevalence of viraemic HCV is estimated to be 1.0% (95% uncertainty interval 0.8-1.1) in 2015, corresponding to 71.1 million (62.5-79.4) viraemic infections. Genotypes 1 and 3 were the most common cause of infections (44% and 25%, respectively). Interpretation The global estimate of viraemic infections is lower than previous estimates, largely due to more recent (lower) prevalence estimates in Africa. Additionally, increased mortality due to liver-related causes and an ageing population may have contributed to a reduction in infections., John C Martin Foundation, John C Martin Foundation.

Background/Aim: To evaluate the clinical manifestations, diagnostic features, disease course and response to treatment among Saudi adults with predominantly hepatic Wilson's disease. A retrospective cohort study of 40 adult patients diagnosed with predominantly hepatic Wilson's disease between 1994 and 2008 at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh was carried out. Patients and Methods: The diagnosis was based on varying combinations of clinical and laboratory evidence of liver disease, presence of Kayser Fleisher rings, low serum ceruloplasmin levels, elevated 24 hour urinary copper excretion and histopathological findings on liver biopsy. Results: The most frequent clinical presentation was decompensated chronic liver disease in 19 (47.5%), followed by chronic hepatitis in 15 (37.5%) and fulminant hepatic failure (FHF) in 5 (12.5%) patients. Eight (20%) patients with end-stage liver disease had liver transplantation, while 24 (60%) patients followed up on medical treatment for a variable period of 1-12 years showed clinical and laboratory improvement. One patient was lost early in follow up. Eight (20%) patients died during the study period, 5 with FHF, and 2 with advanced hepatic and neurological disease and one seven years after liver transplantation. Mortality rate was 100% in FHF without liver transplantation. Conclusion: A predominantly hepatic Wilson's disease has varied clinical presentations with decompensated chronic liver disease being the most common among adult patients. Majority of the patients show stabilization of the disease on medical treatment. FHF in Wilson's disease has a grave prognosis without liver transplantation, the later remains a definitive treatment option for decompensated cirrhotics and patients with FHF.

Gilead Sciences The disease burden of hepatitis C virus (HCV) is expected to increase as the infected population ages. A modelling approach was used to estimate the total number of viremic infections, diagnosed, treated and new infections in 2013. in addition, the model was used to estimate the change in the total number of HCV infections, the disease progression and mortality in 2013-2030. Finally, expert panel consensus was used to capture current treatment practices in each country. Using today's treatment paradigm, the total number of HCV infections is projected to decline or remain flat in all countries studied. However, in the same time period, the number of individuals with late-stage liver disease is projected to increase. This study concluded that the current treatment rate and efficacy are not sufficient to manage the disease burden of HCV. Thus, alternative strategies are required to keep the number of HCV individuals with advanced liver disease and liver-related deaths from increasing. 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A 55-year-old man with schistosomal liver disease presented with shortness of breath, orthodeoxia, platypnea, cyanosis, marked digital clubbing and liver failure. Extensive investigation revealed no other etiology for liver disease apart from schistosomiases. The diagnosis of hepatopulmonary syndrome was based on clinical grounds, as well as abnormal arterial blood gases and positive contrast echocardiography. The patient underwent orthotopic liver transplantation, which was initially successful, but then died of respiratory complications and multi-organ failure on day 42 post-transplant. To the authors' knowledge this is the first report of hepatopulmonary syndrome associated with schistosomal liver disease.