REVIEW   

Panminerva Medica 2022 December;64(4):555-63

DOI: 10.23736/S0031-0808.22.04730-9

Copyright © 2022 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Metabolic associated liver disease

Gianni TESTINO ¹ ✉, Rinaldo PELLICANO ²

¹ Unit of Addiction and Hepatology/Alcohological Regional Centre, ASL3 c/o Polyclinic San Martino Hospital, Genoa, Italy; ² Unit of Gastroenterology, Molinette-SGAS Hospital, Turin, Italy

In real practice the patient with liver disease is often the carrier of multiple etiological factors such as metabolic syndrome (MS) and alcohol consumption (AC). Their copresence is often underestimated and AC is not adequately studied. Traditionally to diagnose non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), AC must not exceed 30 gr for men and 20 gr for women per day. This limit should still be reduced, especially in relation to the AC and fibrogenesis ratio and also frequent misestimation of AC or unrecognized MS may underestimate multi caused liver injury. AC is a contributing cause of MS and alcoholic and non-alcoholic liver disease have a substantially overlapping histopathological picture. Moreover, AC and MS are cause and contributing cause of extra-hepatic morbidity and mortality. It can be concluded that the possible simplification of terminology at metabolic associated liver disease (MALD) makes clinical activity more usable and immediate, facilitates better communication and cooperation between scientific societies and specialists who apparently deal with different medical sectors, facilitates early identification of related hepatic and extra-hepatic pathology, allows to “see the person in a unitary way,” to create more streamlined care pathways, to reduce the hospitalization rate with relative cost-benefit advantage and to create unitary prevention and health promotion policies.

KEY WORDS: Alcohol drinking; Metabolic syndrome; Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; Diabetes mellitus, type 2