Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease : the tree that hides the forest?

The world of hepatology has been recently shaken by a much-needed change of nomenclature validated by a large expert consensus (1). This consensus finally adopts positive diagnostic criteria for the recently renamed metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) (Table 1) (1). This change in nomenclature is supported by scientific arguments published in the Acta Gastro-Enterologica Belgica (2). However, making the diagnosis of MASLD easy on the basis of the coexistence of hepatic steatosis (by imaging or histology) and just one cardiometabolic criterion (Table 1) (1) instead of a diagnosis of exclusion must not relegate other causes of chronic liver diseases to second place (3,4).