Presence and severity of non- in a large prospective p

Background & Aims: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is tics.gov.uk). In parallel with this, there has been a year on year rise in the number of liver function test (LFT) profiles carried gy 2012 vol. 56 j 234–240 Research ArticleJournal of Hepatololiver disease (NAFLD) is now recognized as the most common cause of hepatic dysfunction in general population [1,2], how-ever, this is yet to be confirmed in primary care practice. Fur-thermore, because of the indolent asymptomatic nature of NAFLD, identifying those with advanced disease in whom spe-cific interventions may be required remains a clinical challenge in primary care. The prevalence of NAFLD has risen markedly to 14–34 % of the general-population in Europe [2,3], Asia [4], and America [5] in recent years. Whilst patients with simple NAFLD are believed to have benign disease, there is now clear evidenc