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2025 NEWS
February 17, 2025 - Use HEPATIQ to better predict chronic liver disease outcomes
If you are attending the Global Hepatitis Summit (GHS), Mar 18-20 in Los Angeles, please visit our booth G3 to learn how HEPATIQ® - The Ultimate Liver Test™ - can help you take care of chronic liver disease patients better than traditional liver tests. We are offering new customers a 3 month free trial of up to 30 HEPATIQ reports worth $2,850. There is no obligation to buy after the free trial. HEPATIQ uses SPECT imaging to provide physicians with quantitative liver function data not available from any other technique - blood tests, elastography (ultrasound or MR), or even a biopsy. HEPATIQ is pure software and uses existing equipment, radioisotope, infrastructure and staff. No capital investment is needed.
As Dr. Kip Lyche, gastroenterologist, says: "Serial HEPATIQ testing has improved care for my patients by providing accurate prognostic assessments based on trends in the PHM index of liver function. I believe HEPATIQ can provide early detection of progressive liver disease prompting a vigilant evaluation for complications." The HEPATIQ indices can indicate both liver decompensation and recompensation as the two case studies below illustrate.
Case Study 1: Liver Decompensation - H2 cryptogenic cirrhotic progressed to H5 and died.74 year old female presented as H2 cirrhotic. Over the next 4 years her PHM and fLV both decreased indicating progressive chronic liver disease. There was no indication of alcoholic hepatitis. She progressed to H4 and developed ascites. She died as an H5 while awaiting a transplant.
Case Study 2: Liver Recompensation - H5 improved to H2 after autoimmune hepatitis treated.
65 year old female presented with ascites and jaundice. PHM was about 59 (H5). She was diagnosed with Autoimmune Chronic Active Hepatitis and treated with Prednisone/Imuran. PHM improved to 80 (H3) in a few months and eventually to 93 (H2)
Predictive ability of blood test based scoring systems, such as APRI, FIB-4, NFS, etc., to identify persons with advanced fibrosis associated with development of cirrhosis is modest [B]. Fibrosis scores have poor sensitivity for predicting advanced liver disease in diabetic patients [C]. Elastography or a biopsy may be performed for staging liver disease (F0-F4) but they don't provide information on liver functional reserve. It may be beneficial to use HEPATIQ to assess liver functional reserve for patients designated as abnormal (>F0) [12,13,17,22]. Furthermore, before a liver surgery or any liver interventional procedure, use HEPATIQ to assess liver functional reserve [D].
January 2, 2025 - Before an intervention, individually assess liver functional reserve
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If you are attending the Society of Interventional Oncology (SIO) conference Jan 31 – Feb 2 in Las Vegas, please visit our booth 107 to learn more about HEPATIQ® - The Ultimate Liver Test™. We are offering new customers a 3 month free trial of up to 30 HEPATIQ reports worth $2,850. There is no obligation to buy after the free trial.
A 2022 publication in the Journal of Hepatology, The importance of liver functional reserve in the non-surgical treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, by D’Avola et al [D], states that “Patients with compensated cirrhosis and large liver functional reserve can always receive the most radical treatment”. However, “a more detailed and individualized assessment should be carried out in patients with poorer liver functional reserve”. The HEPATIQ® test’s PHM (perfused hepatic mass) and fLV (functional liver volume) indices provide a measure of the liver functional reserve.[7,11,13,14,15,18,19,20,22,24,28]
A 2022 publication in the Journal of Hepatology, The importance of liver functional reserve in the non-surgical treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma, by D’Avola et al [D], states that “Patients with compensated cirrhosis and large liver functional reserve can always receive the most radical treatment”. However, “a more detailed and individualized assessment should be carried out in patients with poorer liver functional reserve”. The HEPATIQ® test’s PHM (perfused hepatic mass) and fLV (functional liver volume) indices provide a measure of the liver functional reserve.[7,11,13,14,15,18,19,20,22,24,28]
Case Study:
The case for individualized assessments is illustrated here by the HEPAVIEW™ images shown for an 82 year old female cirrhotic patient who developed hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and later died.
As the HEPATIQ fLV-PHM differential graph below shows, when she was first assessed for liver function she was an H2 and remained so for more than three years before progressing to H3. After her HCC was detected, she was treated with radio frequency ablation (RFA). However, the cancer returned and she was then treated with Y90 radio embolization.
Unfortunately, the cancer returned again and she was re-treated with Y90. She had progressed to H4 by that time and after the second Y90 treatment she developed ascites, hepatic encephalopathy and subsequently died.
Liver Tests:
Hospitals spend $12 billion/year[A] on liver tests that provide modest predictive value [B,C]. The HEPATIQ® test predicts disease outcomes better by quantifying remaining liver function.[5,6,12,13,16,17,21,22,24]
Other tests (blood, elastography and biopsies) measure or score liver fibrosis (scar tissue in the liver) but do not quantify remaining liver function. The problem with measuring just fibrosis is that the liver regenerates new functioning tissue and blood flow to the liver increases to get more function out of the remaining good tissue. Fibrosis measurements miss the effect of regeneration and the hemodynamic response to fibrosis.[8,13,16,17,19,20,21,22,27]
HEPATIQ® uses new patented software to analyze liver-spleen SPECT images and provide six indices of liver disease from a single 20 minute scan: quantitative liver function, steatosis/steatohepatitis, portal hypertension, alcoholic hepatitis, fibrosis stage and variceal size.[5-28] HEPATIQ® is the only FDA cleared product on the market that quantifies remaining liver function. To use a car analogy, all other tests estimate the air in the gas tank. That won’t tell you how far the car will travel. HEPATIQ® measures the gas in the gas tank.
HEPATIQ® also calculates a physiologic stage of liver disease:[28] H0: Normal liver function HA: Acute liver disease likely HS: Steatotic liver disease likely H1: Borderline liver function H2: Steatotic cirrhosis likely H3: Non-steatotic cirrhosis likely H4: Liver decompensation likely H5: Liver transplant candidate
The HEPATIQ® indices are used for diagnosis, staging, prognosis, interventions, and monitoring liver disease progression. They help identify those at risk of ascites, variceal bleeding, hepatic encephalopathy and liver-related death.[5,7] HEPATIQ® can provide early detection of progressive liver disease prompting a vigilant evaluation for complications.[24]
Other tests (blood, elastography and biopsies) measure or score liver fibrosis (scar tissue in the liver) but do not quantify remaining liver function. The problem with measuring just fibrosis is that the liver regenerates new functioning tissue and blood flow to the liver increases to get more function out of the remaining good tissue. Fibrosis measurements miss the effect of regeneration and the hemodynamic response to fibrosis.[8,13,16,17,19,20,21,22,27]
HEPATIQ® uses new patented software to analyze liver-spleen SPECT images and provide six indices of liver disease from a single 20 minute scan: quantitative liver function, steatosis/steatohepatitis, portal hypertension, alcoholic hepatitis, fibrosis stage and variceal size.[5-28] HEPATIQ® is the only FDA cleared product on the market that quantifies remaining liver function. To use a car analogy, all other tests estimate the air in the gas tank. That won’t tell you how far the car will travel. HEPATIQ® measures the gas in the gas tank.
HEPATIQ® also calculates a physiologic stage of liver disease:[28] H0: Normal liver function HA: Acute liver disease likely HS: Steatotic liver disease likely H1: Borderline liver function H2: Steatotic cirrhosis likely H3: Non-steatotic cirrhosis likely H4: Liver decompensation likely H5: Liver transplant candidate
The HEPATIQ® indices are used for diagnosis, staging, prognosis, interventions, and monitoring liver disease progression. They help identify those at risk of ascites, variceal bleeding, hepatic encephalopathy and liver-related death.[5,7] HEPATIQ® can provide early detection of progressive liver disease prompting a vigilant evaluation for complications.[24]
Hepatiq Inc. assumes no responsibility to update any news release after it is published.