Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Current Concepts

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most frequent chronic liver disease in high-income countries. NAFLD is a multifactorial disorder with a complex pathogenesis, implicating metabolic pathways, inflammation, apoptosis and genetics. Definite diagnosis and differentiation between isolated steatosis and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis requires a liver biopsy but several noninvasive diagnostic methods have been developed and appear to be promising. Diet and exercise is the cornerstone of treatment whereas no pharmacological agents have been approved for the treatment of these patients. However, accumulating data suggest that insulin-sensitizing and incretin-based antidiabetic agents as well as statins might be helpful both for the improvement of hepatic histology but also for the reduction of cardiovascular morbidity in this high-risk population.