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Volume 42, Issue 5, Pages 331-340 (May 2010)


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Prevention and treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Giovanni Targhera, Alessandro Bellisb, Paolo Fornengoc, Francesca Ciaravellad, Isabella Pichiria, Paolo Cavallo Perinc, Bruno Trimarcob, Giulio MarchesinidCorresponding Author Informationemail address

Received 25 January 2010; accepted 1 February 2010. published online 08 March 2010.

Abstract 

A better knowledge of the biochemical mechanisms implicated in the development and progression of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, linking fatty liver to insulin resistance and the metabolic syndrome, has shifted the goal of treatment from a mere clearing of fat from the liver to a systematic treatment of metabolic risk factors for fatty liver. Any attempt to modify the “unhealthy” habits responsible for fatty liver requires an integrated approach, based on the cognitive theory of behaviour by a multidisciplinary team including physicians, psychologists, dieticians and physical exercise experts, and recent data demonstrate that this is feasible and effective. Whenever this goal is not attained, a treatment based on insulin-sensitizers remains the best option, to simultaneously tackle all metabolic alterations of the metabolic syndrome. However, in individual patients, both raised blood pressure and dyslipidemia need to be controlled, in order to reduce cardiovascular risk. In these areas, any attempt should be made to use of drugs less likely to induce a deterioration of glucose control. It remains to be determined whether these treatments are able to modify the natural history of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in the long term.

a Sezione di Endocrinologia, Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche e Chirurgiche, Università di Verona, Verona, Italy

b Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica, Scienze Cardiovascolari ed Immunologiche, Università “Federico II”, Napoli, Italy

c Dipartimento di Medicina Interna, Università di Torino, Torino, Italy

d Sezione di Malattie del Metabolismo e Dietetica Clinica, Università “Alma Mater Studiorum”, Bologna, Italy

Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author at: Malattie del Metabolismo e Dietetica Clinica, Università “Alma Mater Studiorum”, Azienda Ospedaliera di Bologna, Policlinico S. Orsola-Malpighi, Via Massarenti, 9, I-40138 Bologna, Italy.

 Based on lectures presented at the Single Topic Conference of the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver “The Central Role of the Liver in the Metabolic Syndrome”, Naples, 12–13 June 2008.

PII: S1590-8658(10)00052-6

doi:10.1016/j.dld.2010.02.004


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