Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the accumulation of excess fat in liver cells in people who drink little or no alcohol, and it has become the most common chronic liver condition worldwide, affecting roughly one in four adults. The disease exists on a spectrum: simple fat accumulation, called hepatic steatosis, can progress to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a more aggressive form involving inflammation and cell damage that can advance to fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Its strong links to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome mean that rising rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes are driving a parallel increase in NAFLD, creating a substantial public health burden. Researchers are actively working to replace the invasive liver biopsy — still the diagnostic gold standard — with reliable non-invasive biomarkers and imaging methods, and to understand precisely which patients with steatosis will progress to NASH or fibrosis, so that interventions can be better targeted.

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Keywords

NAFLDNASHLiver FibrosisInsulin ResistanceHepatic SteatosisLiver Biopsy