Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease- causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, pathology

 

Non Alcoholic Fatty liver Disease

Dying hepatocy test there might be additional histopathologic changes like the presence of mallory denk bodies.

Which are tangles of intermediate filaments that can be seen in the cytoplasm of hepatocytes.

The mechanism though for how these form

is still unclear hepatocyte damage also attracts neutrophils into the liver tissues and finally chronic seattle hepatitis can cause liver stellate cells to lay down fibrotic tissue causing the disease to be classified as fibrosis as the process of fibrosis continues the overall architecture of the liver changes.To the point where the disease is classified as cirrhosis even at the advanced stage of steatohepatitis an individual might have no symptoms and when there are symptoms they're often vague.

Like fatigue or malaise once there's significant liver damage though there can be hepatomegaly or enlargement of the liver.

Pain in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen jaundice and even an accumulation of fluid in the peritoneal cavity called ascites.

Because hepatocytes are being destroyed there can be an increase in liver enzymes like aspartate transaminase or ast and to a greater extent alanine transaminase or alt.

Classically progression of steatosis to steatohepatitis and then to cirrhosis causes an increase in the alt and sometimes ast in contrast alcoholic liver injury.

Generally causes a big increase in asd and a more modest increase in alt giving an ast to alt ratio generally greater than two if non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is suspected a diagnosis can be made with imaging studies like ultrasound a ct scan or an mri to look for fatty infiltrates in addition a biopsy of the liver can be done to confirm the diagnosis and assess the severity of the disease.

Generally speaking a liver with more than five percent fat content is considered abnormal steatosis and to a lesser degree steady hepatitis is generally reversible by addressing the underlying cause although that's generally not the case once fibrosis and cirrhosis is set in the goal is to reverse the factors that contribute to insulin resistance.

Mainly through a healthy diet and an active lifestyle as well as medications to control blood glucose levels if needed.

All right as a quick recap non-alcoholic fatty liver disease happens when fat is deposited in the liver a process called steatosis inflammation from seatosis can lead to steatohepatitis and chronic steatohepatitis can lead to fibrosis and ultimately to cirrhosis this spectrum of disease is thought to be caused by insulin resistance and depending on the stage of the disease it can be reversed with careful attention to diet and exercise as well as with medications to help control blood glucose levels.