RICHMOND, Va. — It’s now 20 years since the development of a simple but powerful tool that’s helped transform how liver disease is detected. Often called a silent condition, liver disease can progress without symptoms, but early detection is key to improving outcomes. At VCU Health, that effort is deeply rooted in innovation. In fact, the widely used Fibrosis-4, or FIB-4 index, was developed right here by Dr. Richard Sterling, chief clinical officer at the Stravitz-Sanyal Institute for Liver Disease and Metabolic Health. In a recent news segment, he shared how the tool came to be, why it continues to play such an important role in patient care and what people should know about protecting their liver health. Watch the interview and explore the questions and answers below.
You invented the FIB-4 index – why did you see a need for this kind of tool, and how has it changed care?
More than 20 years ago, the best way that we had to determine the amount of scarring, or fibrosis, in the liver was by performing a liver biopsy. At that time and during my training, I was doing about 20 liver biopsies a week. When I was doing them, I thought, “Who had the bright idea to stick a big needle into a very vascular organ?” That led to the development or my interest in developing a noninvasive way to see if someone had liver fibrosis…