High Concordance Between Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease in the TARGET-NASH Real-World Cohort

Introduction

In June 2023, a multisociety Delphi consensus statement was released changing the nomenclature of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) (1). The change in nomenclature wasmade for a variety of reasons not limited to improved accuracy in naming and reducing stigma in patients with steatotic liver disease. There was also a slight change in diagnostic criteria, requiring at least one of five cardiometabolic criteria tomeet the definition ofMASLD. Such changes in nomenclature and disease state definitions may render previous research and patient cohorts established under older nomenclature challenging to interpretwhen the new nomenclature is applied. For this reason, an investigation into the real-world TARGET-NASH US cohort was conducted to assess the concordance of legacy definitions of nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), and NAFLD/NASH cirrhosis with the new MASLD nomenclature.