About 2,000 people in the U.S. develop acute liver failure (ALF) each year. Patients with ALF have dramatic and sometimes devastating disease presentations, often need liver transplants, and have a heavy demand for care and resources.
To study this rare orphan condition,
the Acute Liver Failure Study Group (ALFSG) was founded at University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW) Medical Center in 1997 to develop a consortium of investigators and clinical centers to collect data and bio-samples from this study population.
The ALFSG network is funded largely by
the National Institutes of Health and by
the Food and Drug Administration, private donors, and foundations.
It is a highly integrated clinical trials network currently comprised of a Statistics and Data Management Center at DCU, a Clinical Coordinating Center at UTSW, and 13 tertiary-care liver transplant centers around the country.