Overview of laboratory diagnostic methods used in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and alcoholic liver disease (ALD) at the modern stage

Abstract

The problem of high prevalence of fatty liver diseases is known today. The question of the diagnostic differentiation of non-alcoholic and alcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD and ALD) has been studied in many studies, possible solutions have been proposed, but, to date, none of them are used in wide practice due to the presence of significant deficiencies in each method. At the same time, timely diagnosed diagnosis directly affects the quality and, often, the life expectancy of the patient. The review presents all modern methods of laboratory diagnostics that can identify differences between NAFLD and ALD, with an indication of the main known characteristics of each method.