To create awareness about liver health problems, free liver tests are being offered to Dutch residents at the RAI in Amsterdam. The arrangement is part of the congress of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) and has received a lot of interest, with people queuing up for hours to get the free test.
Since Monday, the free liver tests have been on offer. Anyone in the Netherlands aged 18 years or older can walk in without an appointment to find out how their liver is doing.
The test is painless and uses a Fibroscan that measures stiffness and fatty deposits in the liver, which indicates if the liver is damaged. In all, the scan takes 10 minutes, and the doctors give the results immediately. The free liver tests are done at three testing stations at the RAI in Amsterdam, available from 9am until 4pm every day and until 2pm on Saturday. May 10 is the final day the tests will be possible for free, reports NOS.
Hundreds of people have shown up to get their livers tested this week, with many waiting for hours. "I've been standing here for more than three hours now," one visitor told AT5. "But yes, it's worth it. My liver has had quite a bit to endure. So I want to know how it is doing now. And it's free."
Amsterdam UMC gastroenterologist Bart Takkenburg believes that it is very important that people take advantage of the free test. "Early detection can prevent many health problems, especially because liver diseases are often only discovered at a late stage," Takkenburg told AT5.
"About 400.000 people are at risk of serious liver damage or liver cancer," said Takkenberg. "The main causes are lifestyle-related: too much alcohol, [being] overweight and an unhealthy diet. We are seeing a sharp increase in liver cancer, in particular due to a fatty liver: ten years ago I saw one patient a week with liver cancer, now it is sometimes four."
According to Takkenburg, the doctors were able to screen up to 200 people on one day. "In a number of them, the test indicated that there was a case of a hardened liver,” he told NOS. “We ask those people to come back again. If the result is the same, they are given a form with a clear explanation and we ask the GP to refer them to a gastroenterologist in their own area."