Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Mar 15;14(2):168-178.
doi: 10.5009/gnl19069.

Extrahepatic Manifestations of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Andrew A Li  1 , Aijaz Ahmed  2 , Donghee Kim  2
Affiliations
Review

Extrahepatic Manifestations of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Andrew A Li et al. Gut Liver. .

Abstract

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease and encompasses a spectrum of pathology from simple steatosis to inflammation and significant fibrosis that leads to cirrhosis. NAFLD and its comorbid conditions extend well beyond the liver. It is a multisystemic clinical disease entity with extrahepatic manifestations such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, chronic kidney disease, hypothyroidism, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and psoriasis. Indeed, the most common causes of mortality in subjects with NAFLD are cardiovascular disease, followed by malignancies and then liver-related complications as a distant third. This review focuses on several of the key extrahepatic manifestations of NAFLD and areas for future investigation. Clinicians should learn to screen and initiate treatment for these extrahepatic manifestations in a prompt and timely fashion before they progress to end-organ damage.

Keywords: Cardiovascular disease; Metabolic syndrome; Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

No potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Williams CD, Stengel J, Asike MI, et al. Prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis among a largely middle-aged population utilizing ultrasound and liver biopsy: a prospective study. Gastroenterology. 2011;140:124–131. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2010.09.038. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lazo M, Hernaez R, Eberhardt MS, et al. Prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in the United States: the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-1994. Am J Epidemiol. 2013;178:38–45. doi: 10.1093/aje/kws448. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vernon G, Baranova A, Younossi ZM. Systematic review: the epidemiology and natural history of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in adults. Aliment Pharmacol Ther. 2011;34:274–285. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2036.2011.04724.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Younossi ZM, Koenig AB, Abdelatif D, Fazel Y, Henry L, Wymer M. Global epidemiology of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease-meta-analytic assessment of prevalence, incidence, and outcomes. Hepatology. 2016;64:73–84. doi: 10.1002/hep.28431. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kim D, Touros A, Kim WR. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and metabolic syndrome. Clin Liver Dis. 2018;22:133–140. doi: 10.1016/j.cld.2017.08.010. - DOI - PubMed

MeSH terms