The liver happens to be the largest organ inside your body that helps in digestion, energy storage, and poison removal. When fat builds up around the organ, then the person starts suffering from fatty liver disease. Mainly, there are two types of fatty liver diseases – one is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or NAFLD and other is alcoholic fatty liver disease or AFLD, also called alcoholic steatohepatitis. Now let’s find out what these two conditions are in the following sections.

What Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Is? What are the Types?

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is a liver condition that is not related to heavy alcohol use and is of two types:

• Simple Fatty Liver

This is a liver condition where the person has fat in his or her liver but there is very little or absent inflammation or liver cell damage. Typically, a simple fatty liver rarely causes liver damage or other complications.

• Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis Or NASH

This is a liver condition where there is inflammation and liver cell damage in a person along with fat deposition in the liver. As a result of this inflammation and liver cell damage, fibrosis or scarring of the liver takes place. Ultimately, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis or NASH often leads to cirrhosis or liver cancer.

How Do You Diagnose Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease? 

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease goes undiagnosed as it is symptomless and detected during tests done for some other disease. Often high levels of liver enzymes in the blood may indicate the beginning of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.   

Tests to Diagnose NAFLD

• Blood tests through syringes
• Complete blood assay
• Iron studies
• Liver enzyme and liver function tests
• Tests for chronic viral hepatitis (hepatitis A, hepatitis C, and others).
• Celiac disease screening test
• Fasting blood sugar
• Haemoglobin A1C
• Lipid profile

Imaging To Diagnose NAFLD

• Abdominal ultrasound
• Magnetic resonance imaging or MRI) computerized tomography or CT scan
• Transient elastography for measuring liver stiffness indicating fibrosis or scarring
• Magnetic resonance elastography. Creates a visual map, or Elastogram, showing the stiffness of body tissues.

Liver Biopsy to Detect NASH

When the tests indicate more advanced liver disease or NASH, or if test results are inconclusive, then the doctor may suggest a liver biopsy, which is the best way to detect NASH. To carry out these biopsies perfectly, you need to have world-class apparatus and instruments which we from Medguard promise to deliver to their customers. We provide some of the best and most needed medical consumable products so that small surgeries can be carried out without any problem. The tissue samples taken are tested in the lab for signs of inflammation and scarring in the liver. 

Now, we will try to find out what alcoholic fatty liver disease is.

What Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease is All About?

Heavy alcohol consumption leads to alcoholic fatty liver disease. Most of the alcohol consumed by a person is broken down by the liver, but the liver cells get damaged in the process, and inflammation sets in. The toxic substances in the alcohol trigger this situation.     

Diagnosis of Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

As fatty liver disease isn’t easily diagnosable, the doctor may take the following steps:

• Take the patient’s medical history
• Perform a physical exam
• Perform various tests like blood and imaging tests, and biopsy

Medical History

As part of the medical history, the doctor may enquire about the rate of alcohol consumption by the patient to conclude whether the fat deposition in the patient’s liver has been triggered by alcohol or not. 

Physical Exam

While performing the physical exam, the doctor examines the full body and checks the weight and height. The doctor gets a conclusive diagnosis of alcoholic fatty liver disease if the patient has an enlarged liver, which is an early sign of liver cirrhosis. This is manifested by jaundice (yellowish discolouration of the skin and in the white portion of the eyeball). If the MRI and CT scans show liver stiffness, he may conclude that the patient is suffering from alcoholic fatty liver disease. 

The Bottom Line

As you have read so far, fatty liver disease is a liver condition where the liver has excess fat accumulation in it. The causes behind this deposition may be due to heavy alcohol use which is termed as alcoholic fatty liver disease or AFLD. When the fat deposition takes place in a person who is a non-drinker much alcohol, it is termed as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or NAFLD. The diagnosis in both cases is carried out by following elaborate tests, imaging, and biopsies. 

The imaging and the tests like the special ultrasound or the MRI scans diagnose the disease and spot the scar tissue in the liver perfectly. But among all these tests and imaging, liver biopsy happens to be the best way to ascertain fatty liver disease. To carry out a world-class treatment for fatty liver disease by the doctor, we from Medguard provide the much-needed medical consumable products such as cotton, pads, needles, syringes, feeding tubes, etc. so that the patient gets an early diagnosis, treatment, and cure. Apart from that, we suggest you keep your bedroom medically equipped so that you can handle the initial emergency.