From NAFLD to MAFLD – The New Epidemic of the 21st Century

NAFLD affects approximately one quarter of the world’s adult population and poses a major health and economic burden to society. The high prevalence reflects increasingly imbalanced and unhealthy diets relative to levels of exercise.

From NAFLD to MAFLD

The New Epidemic of the 21st Century

There has been growing consensus however, that NAFLD has no link to the pathophysiology and The New Zealand Society of Gastroenterology and the New Zealand Gastroenterology Nurses College Annual Scientific does not reflect current knowledge of the pathogenesis of fatty liver disease and associated Meeting 2021 was held in November last year. Among the many interesting presentations was one on the Non-Alcoholic Fatty metabolic diseases. Metabolic dysfunction associated liver disease (MAFLD) has been proposed as a Liver Disease (NAFLD) epidemic, presented by Professor Jacob George from the University of Sydney. more appropriate term to describe liver disease associated with known metabolic dysfunction NAFLD affects approximately one quarter of the world’s adult (George, 2021).population and poses a major health and economic burden to society. The high prevalence reflects increasingly imbalanced and unhealthy diets relative to levels of exercise. There has been growing consensus however, that NAFLD has no link to the pathophysiology and does not reflect current knowledge of the pathogenesis of fatty liver disease and associated metabolic diseases. Metabolic dysfunction associated liver disease (MAFLD) has been proposed as a more appropriate term to describe liver disease associated with known metabolic dysfunction (George, 2021).

Fig. 1. FLOWCHART FOR THE PROPOSED “POSITIVE” DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA FOR MAFLD. (Eslam, et al., 2020, p. 204) (Eslam, et al., 2020, p. 204)