Current Status in Testing for Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) and Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH)
1
Gastrointestinal Unit and Liver Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA
2
Institute of Molecular Pathobiochemistry, Experimental Gene Therapy and Clinical Chemistry (IFMPEGKC), RWTH University Hospital, 52074 Aachen, Germany
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Cells 2019, 8(8), 845; https://doi.org/10.3390/cells8080845
Received: 23 July 2019 / Revised: 5 August 2019 / Accepted: 6 August 2019 / Published: 7 August 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms Underlying the Pathogenesis of Hepatic Fibrosis)
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease in Western countries with almost 25% affected adults worldwide. The growing public health burden is getting evident when considering that NAFLD-related liver transplantations are predicted to almost double within the next 20 years. Typically, hepatic alterations start with simple steatosis, which easily progresses to more advanced stages such as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), fibrosis and cirrhosis. This course of disease finally leads to end-stage liver disease such as hepatocellular carcinoma, which is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Although clinical trials show promising results, there is actually no pharmacological agent approved to treat NASH. Another important problem associated with NASH is that presently the liver biopsy is still the gold standard in diagnosis and for disease staging and grading. Because of its invasiveness, this technique is not well accepted by patients and the method is prone to sampling error. Therefore, an urgent need exists to find reliable, accurate and noninvasive biomarkers discriminating between different disease stages or to develop innovative imaging techniques to quantify steatosis.
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Keywords:
nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; fibrosis; grading; staging; imaging; algorithms; scores; biomarkers
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MDPI and ACS Style
Drescher, H.K.; Weiskirchen, S.; Weiskirchen, R. Current Status in Testing for Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) and Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis (NASH). Cells 2019, 8, 845.
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