More than half of participants in a free liver testing event tested positive for fatty liver disease, the foundation that held the event said on Sunday.
A total of 30 medical institutions across Taiwan examined 5,771 people using abdominal ultrasound on Sunday, with 158 people found to have liver cancer, and 3,074 people found to have fatty liver disease, Liver Disease Prevention and Treatment Research Foundation chairperson Yang Pei-ming (楊培銘) said.
The foundation has held the annual event for the past four years in a bid to encourage screening for liver disease, he said.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
“Although the mortality rate from liver disease has dropped in recent years, more than 10,000 people died from liver-related conditions last year,” he said.
Once a year, institutions that work with the foundation provide free testing for liver, gallbladder, pancreas, spleen and kidney conditions for three hours, he said.
Those found to have tumors suspected to be cancer-related are offered referrals for further testing, he said, adding that this year 13 people also tested positive for cirrhosis, 1,290 people for benign liver tumors and 483 people for liver parenchymal lesions.
The percentage of those who were found to have fatty liver disease reached 53.3 percent this year, which was slightly lower than in previous years, but is still considered high, he said.
“Fatty liver might deteriorate into cirrhosis or even liver cancer, if left untreated,” he said.
Whereas hepatitis B and C were previously the main causes of liver cancer, recent studies in Japan and elsewhere have shown that the main cause is now fatty liver, he added.
The main causes of fatty liver include obesity, diabetes, hypertriglyceridemia and alcohol consumption, he said.
Early detection can help control or even reverse it to avoid deterioration into liver cancer, he added.
The National Health Insurance Administration provides a free one-time hepatitis B and C screening test for people aged 45 to 79 (or 40 to 79 for indigenous people).
The administration also pays for abdominal ultrasounds and liver-function tests for patients with hepatitis B or C, or other chronic liver diseases.
“The country spends more than NT$1 billion [US$30.44 million] annually on liver disease prevention. However, since there are no pain-sensing nerves in the liver, the problem is easily ignored,” he said.
“Therefore, people aged 40 and older are recommended to have abdominal ultrasound examinations every year,” he added.
Comparing testing in Taiwan and Japan, Yang said that while only 6 percent of those tested with liver cancer in Japan are in the late or terminal stage, in Taiwan the number is as high as 34 percent.
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