Devi J, Raees A, Butt AS. Redefining non-alcoholic fatty liver disease to metabolic associated fatty liver disease: Is this plausible? World J Hepatol 2022; 14(1): 158-167 [PMID: 35126845 DOI: 10.4254/wjh.v14.i1.158]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Amna Subhan Butt, FCPS, MBBS, MSc, Associate Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Aga Khan University Hospital, Stadium Road, Karachi 74800, Pakistan. amna.subhan@aku.edu
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
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. Jan 27, 2022; 14(1): 158-167 Published online Jan 27, 2022. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v14.i1.158
Redefining non-alcoholic fatty liver disease to metabolic associated fatty liver disease: Is this plausible?
Jalpa Devi, Aimun Raees, Amna Subhan Butt
Jalpa Devi, Department of Gastroenterology, Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences, Jamshoro 74800, Pakistan
Aimun Raees, Amna Subhan Butt, Department of Gastroenterology, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi 74800, Pakistan
Author contributions: Butt AS was the invited author; Butt AS conceived the idea and developed the outline of the manuscript; Devi J, Raees A, and Butt AS contributed to literature search, review, and manuscript writing; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have nothing to disclose.
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: Amna Subhan Butt, FCPS, MBBS, MSc, Associate Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Aga Khan University Hospital, Stadium Road, Karachi 74800, Pakistan. amna.subhan@aku.edu
Received: March 27, 2021 Peer-review started: March 27, 2021 First decision: June 7, 2021 Revised: June 17, 2021 Accepted: December 22, 2021 Article in press: December 22, 2021 Published online: January 27, 2022
Core Tip
Core Tip: A group of experts have recently developed a consensus towards redefining non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) as metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), suggestive of a more accurate differential diagnosis and signifying the exact disease pathogenesis to achieve higher patient stratification and delivery of better care to patients with NAFLD while avoiding stigmatization due to the presence of the word ‘alcohol’, particularly in regions where alcohol consumption is a taboo for cultural and religious reasons. However, differences in experts' opinions considering the implications of redefining NAFLD as MAFLD still hold strong. Therefore, this review article focuses on the plausibleness and implications of redefining NAFLD as MAFLD.
