“Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD)” is the term suggested in 2020 to refer to fatty liver disease related to systemic metabolic dysregulation. The name change from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) to MAFLD comes with a simple set of criteria to enable easy diagnosis.

The criterion for MAFLD utilizes the same standard for hepatic steatosis but identifies metabolic deregulatory factors as a pre-requisite for the diagnosis to be entertained. The metabolic risk drivers, according to the MAFLD criteria, are type 2 diabetes mellitus and overweight/obesity by ethnic specific body mass index (BMI) classifications. Both risk factors are classically involved in liver fat deposition and have been noted to be associated with an increase in disease progression and of hepatic and extra-hepatic complications. The third deregulatory pathway is less commonly recognized but is part of the operational definition of metabolic syndrome. For the diagnosis of MAFLD in healthy weight people, an individual needs to have two of the seven risk factors to make a diagnosis. The risk factors include waist circumference, blood pressure, plasma triglycerides, plasma high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, prediabetes, homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance score, and plasma high sensitivity C-reactive protein. The combination of hepatic steatosis with one of these three metabolic risk stratifications results in the diagnosis of MAFLD.