Identification of Fatty Liver With Advanced Fibrosis in Type 2 Diabetes Using Simple Fibrosis Scores and Electronic Reminder Messages

Identification of Fatty Liver With Advanced Fibrosis in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Using Simple Fibrosis Scores and Electronic Reminder Messages: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is currently the most common chronic liver disease worldwide and is a major cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer in Western countries. Because of its close association with obesity and diabetes, most patients are seen by primary care physicians and endocrinologists rather than hepatologists. Previous studies have shown that NAFLD is under-recognized outside specialist settings. As a result, many patients are undiagnosed and not receiving specific treatments. With this background, we aim to test the hypothesis that the use of simple fibrosis scores as part of a diabetes complications screening program followed by electronic reminder messages is more effective than usual care in prompting physicians to correctly identify patients with suspected NAFLD and advanced liver fibrosis for specialist referral or further liver assessment. Our secondary aim is to test the hypothesis that the use of fibrosis scores and electronic reminder messages can increase the number of patients with confirmed diagnosis of advanced liver fibrosis.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; Fatty Liver, Nonalcoholic
• Intervention / Treatment: Diagnostic test: Simple fibrosis scores and electronic reminder messages

Detailed Description

This will be a parallel group, randomized controlled trial. Patients fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria above will be randomized 1:1 to two groups. Randomization will be carried out through the use of computer-generated list of random numbers in variable blocks of 4 to 10. Concealment of group allocation will be achieved through putting the group allocation cards in consecutively-numbered and sealed envelopes. The patients and physicians will know that the patients are in the intervention group if they see the reminder messages. When they do not see a reminder message, there will not be a specific indicator of whether the patient is in the control group or in the intervention group but having low fibrosis scores. Furthermore, the outcome assessors will be blinded to the group assignment.

For patients in the intervention group, we will calculate the fibrosis scores. For patients with increased fibrosis scores, we will type the following pop-up message in our electronic clinical management system:

"This patient has high Fibrosis-4 index (and/or AST-to-platelet ratio index) of xxx suggestive of significant liver fibrosis. Please consider referring the patient to the hepatology clinic or arranging further test such as FibroScan."

The reminder message will pop up when physicians see the patient at the clinic and use the electronic clinical management system. The message will remain active for one year. Although the message is entered manually at this stage, the arrangement mimics an automated computer system. If the study results are positive, the next step is to modify the system to automate the process.

Patients in the control group will undergo the same assessments as patients in the intervention group. Although physicians will have access to the raw liver biochemistry results and platelet count, the fibrosis score results will not be specifically shown, and there will be no electronic reminder messages regardless of the fibrosis scores. This is to mimic usual care when there is no dedicated care model for case identification.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 952
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Hong Kong
  • Hong Kong, Hong Kong
    • Prince of Wales Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 70 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 18-70 years
• Having type 2 diabetes
• Provided informed written consent

Exclusion Criteria:

• Type 1 diabetes
• Already receiving specialist care by gastroenterologists or hepatologists
• Current or past history of hepatocellular carcinoma or liver decompensation
• Active malignancies other than hepatocellular carcinoma, unless in complete remission for more than 5 years

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Screening
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Triple

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention group; For patients in the intervention group, we will calculate the fibrosis scores. For patients with increased fibrosis scores, we will type the following pop-up message in our electronic clinical management system: "This patient has high Fibrosis-4 index (and/or AST-to-platelet ratio index) of xxx suggestive of significant liver fibrosis. Please consider referring the patient to the hepatology clinic or arranging further test such as FibroScan." The reminder message will pop up when physicians see the patient at the clinic and use the electronic clinical management system. The message will remain active for one year. Although the message is entered manually at this stage, the arrangement mimics an automated computer system. If the study results are positive, the next step is to modify the system to automate the process.	Diagnostic test: Simple fibrosis scores and electronic reminder messages; For patients in the intervention group, we will calculate the fibrosis scores. For patients with increased fibrosis scores, we will type the following pop-up message in our electronic clinical management system: "This patient has high Fibrosis-4 index (and/or AST-to-platelet ratio index) of xxx suggestive of significant liver fibrosis. Please consider referring the patient to the hepatology clinic or arranging further test such as FibroScan." The reminder message will pop up when physicians see the patient at the clinic and use the electronic clinical management system. The message will remain active for one year. Although the message is entered manually at this stage, the arrangement mimics an automated computer system. If the study results are positive, the next step is to modify the system to automate the process.
No Intervention: Control group; Patients in the control group will undergo the same assessments as patients in the intervention group. Although physicians will have access to the raw liver biochemistry results and platelet count, the fibrosis score results will not be specifically shown, and there will be no electronic reminder messages regardless of the fibrosis scores. This is to mimic usual care when there is no dedicated care model for case identification.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Action on suspected advanced liver fibrosis	Proportion of patients with high fibrosis scores who are referred for specialist care or further liver assessments	Within 1 year of the baseline visit

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Referral for specialist care	The proportion of patients referred for specialist care or further liver assessments, regardless of fibrosis score results	Within 1 year of the baseline visit
Inappropriate referral for specialist care	The proportion of patients with low fibrosis scores who are referred for specialist care. Because NAFLD is highly prevalent and only a minority of patients have advanced fibrosis, referral of patients who will unlikely develop liver-related complications to specialists represents inefficient use of precious healthcare resource and should be minimized. This notion has major resource implications, and the current study will provide important information to guide healthcare policy. We recognize that physicians may have other reasons to refer patients for specialist care (e.g. newly diagnosed viral hepatitis). The reasons for referral will be recorded and reported.	Within 1 year of the baseline visit
Confirmed diagnosis of advanced liver fibrosis	The proportion of patients confirmed to have advanced fibrosis. In this study, a patient is considered to have confirmed advanced fibrosis if (1) liver stiffness measurement by transient elastography is >15 kPa, (2) a liver biopsy shows bridging fibrosis (F3) or cirrhosis (F4), (3) unequivocal radiological features of cirrhosis (cirrhosis with nodular appearance, splenomegaly, ascites or varices), or (4) clinical, radiological or endoscopic evidence of portal hypertension. In case of discrepant results, liver biopsy and unequivocal evidence of cirrhosis and/or portal hypertension will override the liver stiffness measurement results.	Within 1 year of the baseline visit

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Vincent Wong, MD, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 19, 2020
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): October 31, 2022
• Study Completion (Anticipated): April 30, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 23, 2020
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 23, 2020
• First Posted (Actual): January 27, 2020

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 25, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 22, 2022
• Last Verified: July 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Fatty liver; Non-invasive assessment; Case identification
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Digestive System Diseases; Pathologic Processes; Glucose Metabolism Disorders; Metabolic Diseases; Endocrine System Diseases; Liver Diseases; Fibrosis; Diabetes Mellitus; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; Fatty Liver; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
• Other Study ID Numbers: NAFLD-NIT-RCT

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: Selected data may be shared with other researchers upon reasonable request.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: 1-5 years after the publication of the full paper.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Researchers with clear plans of collaboration and analysis
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ICF; ANALYTIC_CODE; CSR

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No