COST ACTION EURO-VALDI-NET accepted

Congratulations to Pierre-Emmanuel Rautou and colleagues for their successful COST Action application! 134 researchers from 27 countries put together the EURO-VALDI-NET project on vascular liver diseases.

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134 researchers from universities, hospitals, companies, NGOs and patient organizations in 27 countries put together the EUROVALDINET project on vascular liver diseases. The project including many ERN member centres, but also colleagues from Israel, Turkey, Egypt and Lebanon will now be funded over the next 4 years.

Vascular liver diseases are a heterogeneous group of rare disorders characterized by impaired vascular flow in the splanchnic and/or intrahepatic vasculature. They mainly include recent portal vein thrombosis, portal cavernoma, porto-sinusoidal vascular disorder, Budd-Chiari syndrome and sinusoidal obstruction syndrome.

 Vascular liver diseases commonly affect young adults, and follow a yet unpredictable course, potentially leading to severe portal hypertension and reduced survival. There is limited awareness in the medical community on vascular liver diseases so that these diseases are currently under-recognized and often misdiagnosed. 

EUROVALDINET aims to create a pan-European multidisciplinary co-operative network of stakeholders, bringing together scientists, clinicians, industry partners, and patient associations, to address the vascular liver disease problems. Through the creation of shared data registries on main relevant basic and clinical aspects, conference calls, meetings, workshops, as well as training schools, this Action will coordinate efforts aiming at advancing the understanding of vascular liver diseases to translate basic research and preclinical findings into clinical practice. 

For this purpose, EUROVALDINET will be organised into 9 working groups: – preclinical models – epidemiology, extensive clinical characterization and harmonization of biosamples collection – extensive histological characterization – extensive radiological characterization – development of screening tools and diagnostic biomarkers – risk stratification and clinical trial design – health-related quality of life and patient-reported outcomes – identification of therapeutic targets and development of new therapeutic approaches – legal and ethics aspects These groups will work together in order to increase knowledge on vascular liver diseases and improve recognition and management of the patients.