Clinical significance of renaming nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

The terms nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease( NAFLD) were first used in the 1980 s to describe a condition of similar liver histological changes to alcoholic liver disease,without excessive drinking nor other factors for liver injury. In-depth research on NAFLD has achieved rapid progress over the past 40 years; however,the unchanged nomenclature of the disease has become an obstacle for routine clinical practice and clinical trials. To overcome the shortcomings of the old term,the international consensus panel proposes to use the term metabolic associated fatty liver disease( MAFLD) to replace NAFLD and further puts forward the comprehensive and simple definition of MAFLD for clinical diagnosis,which makes MAFLD different from other liver diseases. Meanwhile,the panel suggests that MAFLD assessment and severity stratification should be extended beyond the simple dichotomous classification used at present.The new name MAFLD will become an important measure for optimizing clinical practice and improving clinical research and may bring benefits to physicians and patients.