• Davide Festi, Ramona Schiumerini, Giovanni Marasco, Eleonora Scaioli, Francesca Pasqui, and Antonio Colecchia.
• Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, S.Orsola Hospital, Via Massarenti 9, 40138 Bologna, Italy.
• Expert Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2015 Jan 1; 9 (8): 1039-53.

AbstractNon-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a new epidemic liver disease, thus, its early diagnosis and the identification of those patients with the worst prognosis is mandatory. Liver biopsy is still the diagnostic gold standard, even if it is associated to a significant rate of complications; moreover, the interpretation of histological samples is not always univocal. Several non-invasive alternative scores have been proposed for the diagnostic approach to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. This article evaluates the performance of the currently available non-invasive diagnostic strategies. The authors also suggest a potential diagnostic algorithm, with two or more non-invasive techniques, to increase the overall accuracy for identifying patients with worst prognosis, and to minimize the recourse to liver biopsy.

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