Composite prognostic models across the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease spectrum: Clinical application in developing countries.

ABSTRACT: Heterogeneity in clinical presentation, histological severity, prognosis and therapeutic outcomes characteristic of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) necessitates the development of scientifically sound classification schemes to assist clinicians in stratifying patients into meaningful prognostic subgroups. The need for replacement of invasive liver biopsies as the standard method whereby NAFLD is diagnosed, graded and staged with biomarkers of histological severity injury led to the development of composite prognostic models as potentially viable surrogate alternatives. In the present article, we review existing scoring systems used to (1) confirm the presence of undiagnosed hepatosteatosis; (2) distinguish between simple steatosis and NASH; and (3) predict advanced hepatic fibros

SUBMITTER: Luckhoff HK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4438494 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature