Historical narrative from fatty liver in the nineteenth century to contemporary NAFLD - Reconciling the present with the past.

ABSTRACT: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disorder worldwide. This historical narrative traces the evolution from basic descriptions of fatty liver in the nineteenth century to our contemporary understanding of NAFLD in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. A detailed historiographic review of fatty liver from 1800s onwards was performed alongside a brief review of contemporary associations. Archived published literature dating back to the 1800s describe clinicopathological features of fatty liver. In the nineteenth century, doyens of medicine associated fatty liver with alcohol, malnutrition or wasting conditions, and subsequently adiposity, unhealthy diets and sedentary lifestyle. Microscopically, fatty liver was described when 5% or more hepatocytes

SUBMITTER: Ayonrinde OT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8135048 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature