Description
Inclusion Criteria:
- * Patient is 18-65 years old
- * Obesity (defined as BMI \> 30 kg/m2)
- * Biopsy-proven NASH (defined as the presence of steatosis and hepatic injury in the form of ballooning or lobular inflammation)19
- * Advanced fibrosis (defined as bridging fibrosis (F3) or cirrhosis (F4) on LB).
Exclusion Criteria:
- * Decompensated cirrhosis (defined as bleeding varices, ascites, encephalopathy and jaundice)
- * gastric varices
- * diabetes mellitus (defined as HbA1c ≥ 6.5%)
- * active smoking
- * being on an anticoagulant or anti-platelet medication
- * active participation in any weight loss program, the use of a weight loss medication over the past 6 months and history of bariatric surgery or EBMT.
- * Patients with esophageal varices are not excluded as long as they are on a non-selective beta-blocker for primary prophylaxis.
- * Patient is pregnant, breast-feeding, or planning to become pregnant during the course of the study.
- * Patient is unwilling or unable to sign and date the informed consent.
- * Patient is unwilling or unable to comply with the follow-up study schedule.
- * Patient for whom endoscopic procedures are contraindicated.
Ages Eligible for Study:
18 Years to 65 Years (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)
Sexes Eligible for Study: ALL
Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
No