Overview of the Pathogenesis, Genetic, and Non-Invasive Clinical, Biochemical, and Scoring Methods in the Assessment of NAFLD

Viera Kupčová, Michaela Fedelešová, Jozef Bulas, Petra Kozmonová and Ladislav Turecký
Additional contact information
Viera Kupčová: 3rd Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, University Hospital, 83305 Bratislava, Slovakia
Michaela Fedelešová: 3rd Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, University Hospital, 83305 Bratislava, Slovakia
Jozef Bulas: 1st Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, University Hospital, 81369 Bratislava, Slovakia
Petra Kozmonová: 3rd Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, University Hospital, 83305 Bratislava, Slovakia
Ladislav Turecký: Institute of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Clinical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine Comenius University, 81372 Bratislava, Slovakia

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 19, 1-25

Abstract: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most prevalent chronic liver disease worldwide. It represents a range of disorders, including simple steatosis, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and liver cirrhosis, and its prevalence continues to rise. In some cases, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) may develop. The develop;ment of non-invasive diagnostic and screening tools is needed, in order to reduce the frequency of liver biopsies. The most promising methods are those able to exclude advanced fibrosis and quantify steatosis. In this study, new perspective markers for inflammation, oxidative stress, apoptosis, and fibrogenesis; emerging scoring models for detecting hepatic steatosis and fibrosis; and new genetic, epigenetic, and multiomic studies are discussed. As isolated biochemical parameters are not specific or sensitive enough to predict the presence of NASH and fibrosis, there is a tendency to use various markers and combine them into mathematical algorithms. Several predictive models and scoring systems have been developed. Current data suggests that panels of markers (NAFLD fibrosis score, Fib-4 score, BARD score, and others) are useful diagnostic modalities to minimize the number of liver biopsies. The review unveils pathophysiological aspects related to new trends in current non-invasive biochemical, genetic, and scoring methods, and provides insight into their diagnostic accuracies and suitability in clinical practice.

Keywords: nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD); steatosis; nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH); fibrosis; biochemical diagnostic; genetic diagnostic; non-invasive scoring methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/19/3570/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/19/3570/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:19:p:3570-:d:270233

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().