Liver international : official journal of the International Association for the Study of the Liver
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Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a major cause of liver disease worldwide and the most common liver disorder in Western countries, affecting around 25% of the general population. Fibrosis is the major long-term histological prognostic criteria of this disease. Liver biopsy cannot be realistically performed in such a huge population and, moreover, has well-known limitations (invasiveness, rare but potentially life-threatening complications and sampling variability). ⋯ They can also identify the subgroup of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients at high risk of developing liver-related complications and death. As a result, non-invasive tests are now widely used in routine clinical practice and included in national and international guidelines. The next step is the use of non-invasive tests as first-line tools for screening non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in the general population to identify patients who should be referred to specialized centres.