Fatty liver disease is getting a name change. After years of discussion and review, an international working group including members of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and other hepatology societies has come to a consensus, announcing recently that they will refer to fatty liver disease as steatotic liver disease.
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease will now be called metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease, or MASLD, and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis will now be called metabolic dysfunction–associated steatohepatitis. The group also has created a new subcategory, MetALD (pronounced met A-L-D), which is MASLD in the setting of moderate alcohol consumption (140 g/4.76 fluid ounces and 210 g/7.14 fluid ounces per week for women and for men, respectively).