Arun Sanyal, MD: ALT Fluctuations in NAFLD

New findings from an ongoing analysis of patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) show longitudinal trajectories of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were stable among this patient population.

In the study, investigators examined over 3600 adult patients with NAFLD in the US with at least 3 ALT measures and found ALT trajectories were basically stable within this patient population.

In an interview with HCPLive®, Arun J. Sanyal, MBBS, MD, Director of Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease and Metabolic Health, Interim Chair of Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition, Z. Reno Vlahcevic Professor of Medicine, Physiology, and Molecular Pathology, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, how the findings from the TARGET-NASH study, explained the importance of the results.

“This is important because liver enzymes tend to fluctuate up and down and sometimes over the course of treatment trials if the liver enzymes go up there’s always a question over whether this represents part of the natural course of liver enzyme evolution as the disease progresses versus whether it is a drug induced liver injury,” Sanyal said.

ALT is commonly used as a biomarker to monitor liver injuries. However, there is not much known about ALT fluctuations over periods of time and the influence of patient characteristics on ALT trajectories in patients with NAFLD.

The data was presented at the International Liver Congress (ILC) 2022 in London and is part of TARGET-NASH, an observational study of participants with NAFLD and/or NASH in usual clinical practice.