ABSTRACT

Introduction: NAFLD is often under-diagnosed, even though rates of its co-morbidities such as obesity and type2 diabetes mellitus, prominent statuses of inflammation, are significantly high. The spleen-liver axis is gaining much credit in the last years like other well-known organ axes.

Areas covered: PubMed/MEDLINE was searched for relevant articles related to concomitant occurrence of NAFLD and spleen. Areas covered in this review include: (1) updated findings of spleen dimensions at ultrasonography, (2) discussion of current data on pathophysiological connections between obesity-related NAFLD and increased volume of the spleen, and (3) analysis of current immune-mediated mechanisms characterizing the so.called chronic low-grade inflammation leading to insulin resistance.

Expert opinion: The advances in explaining mechanisms underlying the spleen involvement in immune regulation, coupled with research about the role of spleen in NAFLD, could impact real world outcomes through establishing better tools for a precocious diagnosis. Using both liver and spleen ultrasonography, technique largely dealt with in this review, could expand the possibility to cover an adequate diagnostic path toward NAFLD, reaching a good sensibility and specificity.

摘要

简介：尽管 NAFLD 的合并症（如肥胖和 2 型糖尿病、炎症的突出状态）的发病率显着升高，但它的诊断率仍然很高。与其他著名的器官轴一样，脾肝轴在过去几年中获得了很多赞誉。

涵盖的领域：在 PubMed/MEDLINE 中搜索了与 NAFLD 和脾脏同时发生的相关文章。本综述涵盖的领域包括：(1) 超声检查脾脏尺寸的最新发现，(2) 讨论肥胖相关 NAFLD 与脾脏体积增加之间的病理生理学联系的当前数据，以及 (3) 对当前免疫介导的分析表征导致胰岛素抵抗的所谓慢性低度炎症的机制。

专家意见：在解释脾脏参与免疫调节的机制方面取得的进展，再加上对脾脏在 NAFLD 中的作用的研究，可以通过建立更好的早熟诊断工具来影响现实世界的结果。使用肝脏和脾脏超声检查（本综述中主要涉及的技术）可以扩大覆盖对 NAFLD 的适当诊断路径的可能性，达到良好的敏感性和特异性。