Recent studies highlight an important and independent relationship between sarcopenia and chronic liver diseases, particularly non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). While the impact of sarcopenia in patients with end-stage liver disease (ESLD) or decompensated cirrhosis is well established, emerging data underscores the importance of detecting sarcopenia in patients with early NAFLD.
Current muscle-based sarcopenia definitions fail to detect sarcopenia in the population with obesity, which is overrepresented in NAFLD. Until recently, the skeletal muscle-liver crosstalk and the impact of interventions on skeletal muscle have been largely overlooked in the research for NAFLD treatments. Growing evidence places skeletal muscles’ impact on insulin resistance and systemic inflammation at the center of the NAFLD pathogenic cascade.
In this webinar, experts in liver and metabolic diseases, and imaging, will review the latest research on how to assess and monitor sarcopenia in chronic liver disease. Research regarding how sarcopenia may impact chronic liver disease treatment, the current pathophysiological mechanisms linking skeletal muscle metabolism and sarcopenia to liver disease, and how these may be used to discover and develop new treatments will be explored. Finally, they will also discuss how rapid whole-body magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been utilized for quantitative, standardized, and objective body composition assessments in recent sarcopenia research:
Manu V. Chakravarthy, MD, PhD, Axcella Health Inc. – Muscle-liver crosstalk – why focusing on the muscles might be the key to treat liver disease
Mohammad Shadab Siddiqui, MD, Virginia Commonwealth University – Sarcopenia after liver transplant and its impact on cardiometabolic health – assessment, treatment, and implications
Mikael F. Forsgren, PhD, AMRA Medical Research – MRI for body composition and sarcopenia in chronic liver disease research