Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: What's the Long-Term Prognosis?

Several simple noninvasive scoring systems have been developed using routinely measured clinical and laboratory variables to differentiate nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) with and without advanced fibrosis (NEJM JW Gastroenterol Dec 4 2009). However, no studies to date have determined if these scoring systems predict long-term outcomes.

Now, researchers have examined this issue in a retrospective study of 320 well-characterized patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD treated in multiple, international centers. Based on calculations of four validated scoring systems, the NAFLD fibrosis score, the aspartate aminotransferase (AST)/platelet ratio index, the FIB-4 score, and the BARD score, patients were categorized into low-, intermediate-, a…