Topic Highlight
Copyright ©2014 Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 28, 2014; 20(36): 12956-12980
Published online Sep 28, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i36.12956
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: What the clinician needs to know
Mariana Verdelho Machado, Helena Cortez-Pinto
Mariana Verdelho Machado, Helena Cortez-Pinto, Departamento de Gastrenterologia, Laboratório de Nutrição, Hospital Universitário de Santa Maria, Lisbon 1649-035, Portugal
Author contributions: Machado MV wrote the manuscript; Cortez-Pinto H reviewed the manuscript.
Correspondence to: Helena Cortez-Pinto, MD, PhD, Departamento de Gastrenterologia, Laboratório de Nutrição, Hospital Universitário de Santa Maria, Lisbon 1649-035, Portugal. hlcortezpinto@netcabo.pt
Telephone: +351-21-7985187 Fax: +351-21-7985142
Received: February 24, 2014
Revised: April 21, 2014
Accepted: May 25, 2014
Published online: September 28, 2014
Core Tip

Core tip: This is a review in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) that puts the disease into context, highlights the recent advances in pathology, and gives special focus to the diagnosis and management of those patients. We present NAFLD patients in a holistic view, understanding that it many cases thinking outside the liver, namely in the cardiovascular and neoplastic risk, may have a bigger impact in the prognosis. In the era of genomics and high-throughput approaches, we also summarized the latest breakthroughs regarding the genetic associations with NAFLD.