Authors

    Language

    English

    Publication Date

    2-5-2020

    Journal

    Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology

    DOI

    10.1097/MCG.0000000000001284

    PMID

    31789757

    PMCID

    PMC7945957

    PubMedCentral® Posted Date

    3-10-2021

    PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

    Author MSS

    Abstract

    Assessing for the presence of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and the presence of advanced fibrosis is vital among patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) as each is predictive of disease outcomes. A liver biopsy is the gold standard method for doing so but is impossible to perform among all patients with NAFLD. Reliable methods for noninvasively detecting for the presence of NASH and advanced fibrosis are thus a pressing need. The search for noninvasive tests has been more successful for advanced fibrosis than for NASH. Clinical prediction models and elastography have acceptable accuracy for ruling out advanced fibrosis; when used together, as in a fibrosis prediction algorithm presented in this review, it can avoid the need for liver biopsy among many patients with NAFLD. Several biomarkers for identifying the presence of NASH have been studied but none are sufficiently accurate or validated. Of those studied, the most promising include CK-18 fragments, lipodomic and metabolomics candidates, and magnetic resonance elastography with proton density fat fraction. However, none are ready for clinical use and ultimately large multicenter prospective cohort studies are needed to validate select novel biomarkers.

    Keywords

    Biomarkers, Biopsy, Elasticity Imaging Techniques, Fibrosis, Humans, Liver, Liver Cirrhosis, Multicenter Studies as Topic, Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Prospective Studies, elastography, fibrosis, NASH, biomarkers

    Published Open-Access

    yes

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