This conversation is part of SurfingNASH’s 2021 NAFLD Year-In-Review. Professor Alina Allen of the Mayo Clinic joins Louise Campbell and Roger Green to discuss the rapid progress the profession has made in improving user-friendliness and ease of interpretation of MRE and the coming expansion in the role that non-invasive liver testing will play in the years to come.

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Alina notes some specific new information about MRE and other non-invasive testing methods that have come to light in the past year. Key new points about MRE include (1) Alina’s statement that “we an actually diagnose NASH” using MRE and MRI-PDFF, (2) Alina’s comment that we can execute MRE in a five-minute session, and (3) there are demonstrated correlations and precision prediction data for MRE and cirrhosis. The predictive power of MRE on likelihood of progression allows a way to match pairs in clinical trials more accurately by adding the act of pairing by active and control groups. Alina also notes that the same probability metrics that allow researchers to match pairs in a trial will also power the treating physician to schedule the next MRE in 1-5 years depending on relative risk of progression. In the end Alina suggests that we do not need MORE biomarkers, but instead we need to determine the best way to explore the ones that have been developed in the last few years.

If you listen closely, you will hear Alina discuss some questions that will be answered and data that will be presented at NASH-TAG 2022.