title: Noninvasive diagnosis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: Are we there yet?
abstract: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has rapidly become the most common form of chronic liver disease in the United States affecting approximately 80-100 million Americans. NAFLD includes a spectrum of diseases ranging from nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) to fibrosis and eventually cirrhosis. Patients with NASH and significant fibrosis on liver biopsy have an increased risk for liver-related morbidity and mortality compared to those with NAFL. Due to the high prevalence of NAFLD and its progressive nature, there has been an urgent need to develop reliable noninvasive tests that can accurately predict the presence of advanced disease without the need for liver biopsy. These tests can be divided into those that predict the presence of NASH and those that predict the presence of fibrosis. In this review, we provide a concise overview of different noninvasive methods for staging the severity of NAFLD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA; Digestive Disease Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Naim
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Alkhouri
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego (UCSD), CA, USA. Electronic address: afeldstein@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Ariel E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Feldstein
mesh_terms: D017209:Apoptosis; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D018450:Disease Progression; D054459:Elasticity Imaging Techniques; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology*; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D065626:Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: Biomarkers; Fibrosis; NASH