Copyright
©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Apr 8, 2015; 7(4): 638-648
Published online Apr 8, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i4.638
Published online Apr 8, 2015. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v7.i4.638
Non-invasive methods for the diagnosis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease
Marianthi Papagianni, Areti Sofogianni, Konstantinos Tziomalos, First Propedeutic Department of Internal Medicine, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, AHEPA Hospital, 54636 Thessaloniki, Greece
Author contributions: Papagianni M and Sofogianni A drafted the paper; Tziomalos K revised the draft critically for important intellectual content.
Conflict-of-interest: We have no conflict of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (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/
Correspondence to: Konstantinos Tziomalos, MD, PhD, First Propedeutic Department of Internal Medicine, Medical School, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, AHEPA Hospital, Kiriakidi 1, 54636 Thessaloniki, Greece. ktziomalos@yahoo.com
Telephone: +30-231-994621 Fax: +30-231-994773
Received: November 3, 2014
Peer-review started: November 3, 2014
First decision: December 4, 2014
Revised: December 13, 2014
Accepted: January 15, 2015
Article in press: January 19, 2015
Published online: April 8, 2015
Processing time: 162 Days and 13.5 Hours
Peer-review started: November 3, 2014
First decision: December 4, 2014
Revised: December 13, 2014
Accepted: January 15, 2015
Article in press: January 19, 2015
Published online: April 8, 2015
Processing time: 162 Days and 13.5 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Current data suggest that ultrasound and the fibrosis-4 score are probably the most appealing methods for detecting steatosis and for distinguishing nonalcoholic steatohepatitis from simple steatosis, respectively, because of their low cost and relatively high accuracy. However, currently available methods, both serologic and imaging, cannot obviate the need for liver biopsy for diagnosing nonalcoholic steatohepatitis due to their substantial false positive and false negative rates. Therefore, the current role of these methods is probably limited in patients who are unwilling or have contraindications for undergoing biopsy.