The Systematic Observatory Liver-Diseases Registries
Project Description
Chronic liver disease constitutes a major health problem, and considered an important cause of morbidity and mortality. While, the economic burden associated with liver disease is remarkable, the burden of liver disease appears to be on the rise, due ,in part, to the increasing prevalence of NAFLD, HCV, and HCC. On the other hand, many liver diseases with relatively low frequency have substantial impact on the quality of life of those affected patients.
It is important to point out that there are gaps in our current understanding of the epidemiology of liver disease at the population level. This is partly because of the fact that many investigations in hepatology are conducted at referral centers based on selected patients. As most liver diseases have a substantial latency period during which patients have mild asymptomatic liver disease, studies based on referral patients only recognize patients with the most severe or advanced disease and fail to obtain information on the entire spectrum of disease.
Although the need and benefits of population-based epidemiologic data are easy to recognize, it is much harder to execute such studies without enhancing the abilities to implement highly advanced electronic methods to obtain the maximum and clean necessary data on specific chronic liver diseases and increasing the awareness of the impact and need for intervention by concerned funding agencies for a continued expansion of research in the area as it has in other fields such as heart disease and diabetes.
Hepatology specialists can further contribute to a better understanding of the epidemiology of liver disease by continuing to endeavour to understand pathophysiologic mechanisms and thereby be able to classify diseases by clear-cut diagnostic criteria. investigation in many liver diseases that are infrequent will continue to depend on patients seen at referral centers. However, for a meaningful progress to be made, concerted efforts across specialty centers are needed.
SOLID electronic liver diseases' registry is designed to be prospective and retrospective study to precisely report into the patterns of HBV, HCV, HCC & NAFLD diseases' Frequency, prevalence, incidence, and onset will be measured by both existing cases and the occurrence of new cases starting from the launch date of SOLID registries.
As of the fact, there is often a long time interval between disease occurrence and detection. Further, many patients with liver disease remain asymptomatic until they develop hepatic decompensation. Thus, except for a small number of conditions, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to accurately ascertain incidence rates of liver disease. However, and to maximize the benefit of this multinational-based study, the plan is made to have SOLID study running from 10 to 15 years or may far exceed forecasted estimates.