Opinion Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 21, 2021; 27(35): 5803-5821
Published online Sep 21, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i35.5803
Screening for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease-when, who and how?
Christoph G Dietrich, Monika Rau, Andreas Geier
Christoph G Dietrich, Department of Internal Medicine, Bethlehem Health Center, Stolberg 52222, Germany
Monika Rau, Department of Internal Medicine II, University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg 97080, Germany
Andreas Geier, Department of Medicine II, University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg 97080, Germany
Author contributions: Dietrich CG and Geier A developed the concept of this review; all authors contributed to the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: CGD reports personal speaker fees from Falk Foundation. MR declares no conflict of interest. AG serves as advisor and steering committee member for AbbVie, Alexion, Bayer, BMS, CSL Behring, Eisai, Gilead, Intercept, Ipsen, Merz, MSD, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, Sequana and as speaker for AbbVie, Alexion, BMS, CSL Behring, Falk, Gilead, Intercept, Merz, MSD, Novartis, Roche, Sequana. AG also received research support from Intercept and Falk (NAFLD CSG), Novartis.
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: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Christoph G Dietrich, MD, PhD, Chief Doctor, Department of Internal Medicine, Bethlehem Health Center, Steinfeldstr. 5, Stolberg 52222, Germany. christoph.g.dietrich@googlemail.com
Received: March 16, 2021
Peer-review started: March 16, 2021
First decision: May 1, 2021
Revised: May 13, 2021
Accepted: August 30, 2021
Article in press: August 30, 2021
Published online: September 21, 2021
Core Tip

Core Tip: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is becoming more important in Western countries and leads to serious complications in patients with progressive disease. The epidemiological, clinical and technical requirements for screening for this disease are fulfilled and are outlaid in this review. It is time to consider a screening program for NAFLD.