Differences between NAFLD/MAFLD, iDILI, DIS, and alcohol associated hepatitis [7, 15, 20, 34, 38, 5861]

Differential diagnosisDILI [15, 59]DIS/DISH [20, 58]NAFLD/MAFLD [15, 34, 38]Alcohol-associated hepatitis [61]
Clinical presentation

Acute or chronic

Multiple phenotypes

Acute or chronicChronicAcute or chronic
Associated signs and symptomsFatigue, weakness, right upper quadrant pain, nausea, jaundice, dark urine, pruritus, fever, and rash

Fatigue, weakness, right upper quadrant pain, nausea, jaundice, dark urine, pruritus, fever, and rash

AAS

Asymptomatic

Asthenia, malaise, and right upper quadrant pain

Jaundice

Ascites, edema, malaise, fever, hepatomegaly, confusion

Drugs, HDS, and alcohol

More than 1,000 drugs and HDS

More frequent antibiotics (amoxicillin-clavulanic acid)

Check-in LiverTox (https://livertox.nih.gov/) [60]

Acute fatty liver: amiodarone, didanosine, stavudine, valproate, and zalcitabine

Drug-associated fatty liver disease: methotrexate, 5-fluorouracil, irinotecan, tamoxifen, corticosteroids, lomitapide, and mipomerson

No suspected drugs

Alcohol intake:

NAFLD: < 20 g/d (F), < 30 g/d (M)

MASLD: < 140 g/w (F), < 210 g/w (M)

Alcohol consumption of more than 40 g/d in women and 50–60 g/d for men, with less than 60 days of abstinence before the onset
Biochemical parameters

ALT > 5 × ULN

ALT > 3 × ULN + TB > 2 × ULN

ALP > 2 × ULN

Not established

AST and ALT < 5 × ULN

AST/ALT < 1

Normal ALP and TB

TB > 3 mg/dL (> 50 μmol/L)

AST/ALT > 1.5

AST, and ALT > 400 UUI/L

GGT > 100 U/L

Radiological findingsNo specific findingsLiver steatosisLiver steatosis

Liver steatosis

Hepatomegaly

Liver biopsy

Acute hepatocellular liver injury: lobular inflammation, portal inflammation, interface hepatitis, apoptosis, granulomas, coagulative necrosis, and confluent or bridging necrosis

Cholestatic DILI: acute cholestasis, chronic cholestasis, and acute cholestatic hepatitis

Steatosis, steatohepatitis

Microvesicular (mitochondrial injury)

Macrovesciular

Mixed

Steatosis > 5% of hepatocytes, ballooned hepatocytes, lobular inflammation, apoptotic bodies, portal inflammation, perisinusoidal collagen, portal fibrosis, Mallory-Denk, megamitochondria, glycogenated nuclei in periportal hepatocytes, lobular lipogranulomas, PAS-diastase-resistant Kupffer cells, and hepatic siderosisBallooned hepatocytes, Mallory-Denk bodies, neutrophil infiltration, ductular reaction, bilirubinostasis, and pericellular, and sinusoidal fibrosis

d: day; F: female; GGT: gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase; M: male; TB: total bilirubin; w: week; PAS: periodic acid-schiff; ×: times