Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is a recently proposed terminology to refer to the diseases within the spectrum of fatty liver disease that aims at enabling a more clinically-oriented approach that goes beyond the absence of risky alcohol consumption that characterized the former definition of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. MAFLD is the most common chronic liver disease worldwide, particularly in developed countries. It is considered the liver manifestation of metabolic syndrome, and it ranges from scarcely pathological forms, such as simple steatosis, to decompensated cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. MAFLD epidemiology corresponds to that of an unequal epidemic (in terms of distribution, growing trends, and population groups affected) that is tightly intertwined with those of the obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemics. Relevant advances in the knowledge on MAFLD epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical presentation, and prognosis have taken place during the last two decades. However, there are still no approved drug treatments for MAFLD, in spite of dozens of clinical trials undertaken and underway, therefore, important gaps remain to be filled, mainly on the public policies, health systems’ design, and the management through multidisciplinary approaches.
As there are already several Research Topics in Frontiers Endocrinology dealing with
"the basic mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of NAFLD, and its treatments" , this Research Topic mostly aims at investigating the potential ways forwards to strengthen the study, the dissemination of knowledge, and the establishment of diagnosis, referral and management pathways from a multidisciplinary perspective by approaching MAFLD through a predominantly public health-oriented lens. Therefore, besides endocrinologists and hepatologists as foremost experts on the clinical and therapeutic aspects of MAFLD and its related complications and comorbidities, we expect to bring together epidemiologists, public policy experts, primary care specialists, nurses, nutritionists, patients, and their representatives, and drug development experts among other to provide insight on their respective fields but particularly the areas of convergence that might allow improving the prognosis and quality of life of patients with MAFLD.
The Editors are mainly interested in the submissions of reviews, both systematic for less known or newest topics, and narrative for better-established topics, but shorter expert opinion-comment pieces will also be of interest. Of course, original articles dealing with MAFLD distribution, set up and efficacy of referral pathways, novel techniques to model the epidemic, clinical cohorts, etc will also be welcome. Finally, we would also like to attract position statements from collaborative efforts of various scientific societies
Potential sub-themes are, but not limited to:
• Implications of the change in terminology from NAFLD to MAFLD;
• Integrated approaches to map the distribution and burden of disease of MAFLD: epidemiology, clinical cohorts, big data & artificial intelligence, complex systems;
• Diagnosis and management pathways of MAFLD from the community to complex care (eg, tertiary care setting);
• Main public policies related to MAFLD in each continent;
• Point-of-care diagnosis of liver fibrosis and management of metabolic risk at the primary care level;
• Knowledge on MAFLD amongst the lay population, patients, and healthcare providers from various areas of expertise;
• MAFLD: the view from Scientific societies (EASO, EASL, others);
• What do we mean by multidisciplinary collaboration for tackling MAFLD?
• What can hepatologists learn from endocrinologists and vice versa when approaching MAFLD?
• From simplicity to complexity: the challenges of lifestyle interventions, drug therapy, bariatric surgery and liver transplant;
• MAFLD from the experiences of patients and relatives/friends.