Dr Wafaa Al-Hashash who is consultant of internal medicine, digestive system and liver has warned that about 160,000 citizens and residents are prone to suffer from cirrhosis within 10 years, due to the steatosis of the liver.
Al-Hashash told a local Arabic daily that fatty liver disease affects more than 20 percent of the world population. “According to global statistics,” Dr Al-Hashash said, “we now have among 4 million people 800,000 people with fatty liver, and the disease will develop after 10 years and about 20 percent of them will have cirrhosis, and this percentage will be about 160,000.”
Dr Al-Hashash advised patients to go for early detection of liver cirrhosis, explaining that there are modern techniques that help in this detection, such as the “Firscan” device, which is used to measure the percentage of cirrhosis or liver scarring without the need for a sample, as well as measures the percentage of fat in the liver.
She pointed out that the “Viruscan” device uses a very advanced technology, as it measures the stiffness and flexibility of the liver in a short time using ultrasound in a fast and painless manner, and without any interference inside the body. The device also examines the liver area, which is at least a hundred times larger than the tissue sample taken through liver biopsy, and it also calculates the level of fat in the liver more accurately than the usual ultrasound device, and without pain.
She pointed out that this device is available in the Ministry of Health, the public and private sectors, and the device was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2013. She explained that fatty liver is the number one cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer globally, and not only in Kuwait, and its first cause is obesity.