Getting closer to a point-of-care diagnostic assessment in patients with chronic liver disease: Controlled attenuation parameter for steatosis

In a worldwide scenario of pandemic obesity and metabolic syndrome, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is exponentially increasing. NAFLD per se has become the most frequent cause for referral for chronic liver disease evaluation (CLD) and an increasing cause of hepatocellular carcinoma and end-stage liver disease requiring liver transplantation in developed countries [1,2]. Fatty liver (steatosis) can be also found in patients with CLD of other aetiologies, since some CLD are themselves steatogenic (chronic hepatitis C virus – HCV infection; alcoholic liver disease), and since the metabolic syndrome can be superimposed to other liver diseases.