Book review: The Complete Guide to Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Need-to-know NAFLD

The Complete Guide to Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Edited by Naim Alkhouri and Stephen Harrison

Published CRC Press (Published September 2023 First Edition)

ISBN  978-1-032-47948-4

Price (Paperback) £55.99

This excellent book covers an important topic that can sometimes be overlooked and is a good reference source. As the paperback, which runs to 242 pages including the index, is short it can be read in sections or as a whole. Reading the biographies of the editors and scanning the institutional affiliations of the contributors, there is a clear North American bias towards the contributors with some international contributors. However, I am sure that users from many countries will appreciate this book.

As the preface points out, NAFLD is the commonest form of chronic liver disease but I was stunned to learn that it affects one quarter of the world population. Important sequelae include malignancy and cirrhosis of the liver which can potentially cause huge mortality and morbidity so it is essential that clinicians know more about this condition.

I suspect that gastroenterologists and primary care physicians will be interested in this book and there is certainly a lot of detail plus references. I found the section on page 57 very helpful at looking and explaining risk stratification strategies such as FIB-4 and ELF scores. Whilst on page 60 there is a helpful algorithm for assessing the risk from NAFLD. This is all part of Chapter 6, “Simple Algorithms in Primary Care” which is a great read for primary care physicians.

Chapter 9 has an intriguing title “Artificial Intelligence in NAFLD Diagnosis” and this is a good example of how modern this textbook is. Going back to the one quarter of the population with this condition, letting Artificial Intelligence loose in a large electronic database of imaging or health records, I am sure will find many new cases. Of course, the impact of doing this must be verified (or not) by well run high quality clinical trials. But it does open up a new and exciting dimension and this chapter is a fascinating look at what will a huge subject area.

All in all, this is a very good book and expanded my view of what is an important topic. With specific sections on extra hepatic manifestations and looking at NAFLD in special populations, this book gives a readable but a broad view of an important condition. Learning that it can affect a quarter of the world population makes this a topic that everyone should know about. It is not a cheap book but it should reach a wide audience.

Dr Harry Brown is a retired GP, Leeds and Medical Editor of Pavilion Health Today