{"id":385358,"date":"2026-07-24T18:10:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T18:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/385358\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T18:10:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T18:10:27","slug":"san-antonio-joins-national-push-to-catch-fatty-liver-disease-earlier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/385358\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio joins national push to catch fatty liver disease earlier"},"content":{"rendered":"

When one of Dr. Greg Gonzaba\u2019s closest friends from medical school called him out of the blue, Gonzaba expected a conversation about his practice and life in Austin.\u00a0But fat had been building up in his friend\u2019s liver undetected, until it was too late.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe told me he was on hospice,\u201d Gonzaba said.<\/p>\n

He died a few months later, at 53.<\/p>\n

Gonzaba, an internal medicine physician with Gonzaba Medical Group in San Antonio, has since seen several patients die from fatty liver disease over his 27 years in practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes the families, they\u2019re perplexed,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re like, \u2018What do you mean? You never told us we had this, and where did this come from?\u2019 It can sneak up on you if it\u2019s not caught early.\u201d<\/p>\n

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) occurs when excess fat cells build up in the liver, driving chronic inflammation. It was formerly known as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). The condition is a subgroup of fatty liver diseases, which also includes alcohol-associated liver disease.<\/p>\n

Gonzaba is now leading efforts to recruit patients in San Antonio for a national study led by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) looking to find better ways to detect fat buildup in the liver sooner, and more often.<\/p>\n

San Antonio was one of four sites chosen, Gonzaba said, in part due to the high prevalence of comorbidities and risk factors that often accompany fatty liver diseases, including obesity, diabetes and high-fat diets. It was also chosen for its significant Hispanic population, a group that is more susceptible to the disease on average.<\/p>\n

MASH rates increasing<\/p>\n

MASH is on a dramatic rise in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2000, 0.1% of liver transplants<\/a> were driven by MASH nationally. In 2022, that number jumped to 16%, the leading cause after alcohol-driven liver disease only, according to a 2024 study<\/a> published in the Southern Medical Journal.<\/p>\n

Other research suggests<\/a> that MASH prevalence and mortality is increasing and will continue to rise through 2030 in the U.S. \u2014 driven by increasing rates of obesity and diabetes, as well as an aging population. There is also a genetic component to the disease.<\/p>\n

A 2016 study<\/a> also found that Hispanic people living in Cameron County in South Texas experienced liver cirrhosis nearly four times the national average, driven by high rates of obesity and diabetes. The study also notes that Hispanics in South Texas have the highest incidence of liver cancer in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI do see a lot of Hispanic patients, and I see a lot of people that are overweight, a lot of people with diabetes,\u201d said Gonzaba, who practices out of Gonzaba Medical Group\u2019s Northwest Clinic in San Antonio. \u201cBelieve it or not, almost anyone that we do a liver scan on, looking at their gallbladder for gallstones or look at their kidneys, we see fatty liver buildup.\u201d<\/p>\n

The good news is that fatty liver disease is treatable and reversible. The intervention for MASH is largely lifestyle-focused, but two recently approved drugs are also available, including the GLP-1 agonist<\/a> semaglutide, approved<\/a> to treat MASH in 2025.<\/p>\n

To best combat the disease, \u201cIf you\u2019re overweight, lose weight. If you\u2019re a diabetic, control your diabetes, and if you eat a lot of food that is high in fat, change your diet and get regular exercise,\u201d Gonzaba said. \u201cIn some people, that\u2019s more than enough to even reverse this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Dr. Greg Gonzaba of the Gonzaba Medical Group at the Gonzaba Northwest Medical Center off of Culebra Road on July 23, 2026. Credit: Amber Esparza \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

The bad news is that a significant portion of patients won\u2019t know they have MASH until it\u2019s too late, largely because of inadequate diagnostics.<\/p>\n

Skipping the needle<\/p>\n

MASH currently requires a lengthy diagnosis. This involves imperfect blood tests that can miss certain patients, imaging and ultimately a liver biopsy, a bedside procedure that requires inserting a hollow needle through the skin into the liver to get a sample of liver tissue.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a little more invasive,\u201d Gonzaba said. \u201cIt can be painful and expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FNIH\u2019s Biomarkers Consortium is seeking to validate new biomarkers to detect MASH without the need for a liver biopsy, ultimately helping catch this earlier and in more patients before significant liver damage occurs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The organization is leading successive studies<\/a> seeking to find reliable non-invasive ways to diagnose and treat liver disease. This includes the NIMBLE<\/a> project, which the Gonzaba Medical Group is helping recruit patients for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The FNIH laid out its motivations for finding better diagnostics for MASH in a 2026 correspondence<\/a> in Nature Communications.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe status quo has many limitations,\u201d the authors wrote. \u201cIt requires liver biopsy, which is invasive and associated with the potential for severe morbidity and even death, and is further negatively impacted by sampling and observer variability. These have contributed to high screen failure rates for clinical trials. <\/p>\n

\u201cTogether these constitute a major barrier to drug development for this public health threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gonzaba Medical Group is helping recruit patients across its San Antonio clinics for the larger study that will be conducted. So far, the medical group has about 10 participants.<\/p>\n

Because the criteria are so strict, finding participants is a lengthy process. Study participants are compensated for their time. Gonzaba and his team are aiming to recruit roughly 200 patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cCatching it earlier can be life-saving for a lot of people,\u201d Gonzaba said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When one of Dr. Greg Gonzaba\u2019s closest friends from medical school called him out of the blue, Gonzaba…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82214,135906,132052,135907,7032,584,63320,135908,135909,51107,82,84,83,1474,92,3028,94],"class_list":["post-385358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-diabetes-in-bexar-county","tag-dr-greg-gonzaba","tag-fatty-liver-disease","tag-foundation-for-the-national-institutes-of-health","tag-gonzaba-medical-group","tag-health","tag-liver-transplant","tag-mash","tag-nash","tag-obesity","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-south-texas","tag-top-story","tag-typedaily","tag-wc-750-1000"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}