Identification of Neuroinflammation in the Brain in Vivo and in Vitro and Therapeutic Strategies to Combat Its Progression

years from a general population attending a medical check-up. All subjects were submitted to medical examination and laboratory tests in addition to LSM, performed the same day by a single operator. Subjects with LSM values over 8 kPa were referred to a liver unit for further investigation. Subjects with missing data (n = 23), LSM failure (n = 51) or unreliable LSM values (n = 94) were not considered for the analysis. Among the 1190 remaining subjects, 89 (7.5%) had LSM over 8 kPa, including 9 patients with LSM above 13 kPa. Although normal liver tests were observed in 43% of them (38 of 89), a specific cause of chronic liver disease was found in all cases. NAFLD was the likely cause of chronic liver disease in 52 patients, alcoholic liver disease (ALD) in 20, both causes being associated in 7 additional patients. HCV and HBV chronic hepatitis were documented in five and four cases, respectively, and primary biliary cirrhosis in one. Liver biopsy was obtained for 27 patients, including the nine patients with LSM above 13 kPa. Among these nine patients, all showed liver cirrhosis due to ALD in five cases, chronic hepatitis C in three and chronic hepatitis B in one case. The 18 remaining biopsies showed liver fibrosis in all cases except one (isolated steatosis), with ALD and NAFLD being present in six and eight cases, respectively. In conclusion, LSM proved to be a useful and specific procedure to screen for cirrhosis in the general population and to detect undiagnosed chronic liver disease in apparently healthy subjects. Liver cirrhosis is an important public health problem involving 0.7% of the general population.