Fouad Y. Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease: New nomenclature and approach with hot debate. World J Hepatol 2023; 15(2): 123-128 [PMID: 36926229 DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v15.i2.123]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Yasser Fouad, MD, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology and Endemic Medicine, Minia University, El Omoumy Rd., ARD SHALABY, EL MENIA, Minia 19111, Egypt. yasserfouad10@yahoo.com
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Editorial
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Hepatol. Feb 27, 2023; 15(2): 123-128 Published online Feb 27, 2023. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v15.i2.123
Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease: New nomenclature and approach with hot debate
Yasser Fouad
Yasser Fouad, Department of Gastroenterology and Endemic Medicine, Minia University, Minia 19111, Egypt
Author contributions: Fouad Y wrote and revised the editorial.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yasser Fouad, MD, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology and Endemic Medicine, Minia University, El Omoumy Rd., ARD SHALABY, EL MENIA, Minia 19111, Egypt. yasserfouad10@yahoo.com
Received: August 29, 2022 Peer-review started: August 29, 2022 First decision: November 17, 2022 Revised: November 19, 2022 Accepted: January 31, 2023 Article in press: January 31, 2023 Published online: February 27, 2023
Abstract
An international panel recently proposed an update to the terminology and diagnostic criteria for fatty liver disease. The experts proposed a change in the nomenclature from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) to metabolic (dysfunction)-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD). This single-letter change, we believe, heralds the dawn of a new era in clinical practice and in clinical and basic research as well. The new nomenclature with the easily applicable approach has stimulated the enthusiasm of the researchers worldwide, resulting in a large number of publications over the past two years. Several recent studies have provided tremendous evidence of the superiority of the MAFLD criteria over the NAFLD criteria. Many studies in different geographic areas of the world including the United States, Europe, and Asia on a large number of patients proved that the utility of MAFLD criteria was higher than that of the NAFLD criteria in different aspects of fatty liver diseases. Consequently, many societies, physician and nurse groups, health stakeholders, representatives of regulatory sciences, and others endorsed the new nomenclature. Here we highlight the endorsement of the new name by different societies and groups and the outcome of different studies on the new nomenclature in addition to a short discussion of the debate by some experts.
Core Tip: An international panel recently proposed an update to the terminology and diagnostic criteria for fatty liver disease. The authors proposed a change in the nomenclature from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) to metabolic (dysfunction)-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD). Several studies have been published recently, and showed tremendous evidence of the superiority of MAFLD criteria over NAFLD criteria. Consequently, many societies, physician and nurse groups, health stakeholders, representatives of regulatory sciences, and others endorsed the new nomenclature.
