Simple diagnostic algorithm identifying at-risk nonalcoholic fatty liver disease patients needing specialty referral within the United States

Figure 1 Flow chart for study population. A total of 9254 participants were identified from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, from which 3, 669 patients met all inclusion and exclusion criteria. From this cohort, 737 patients were identified with type 2 diabetes. NHANES: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey; T2DM: Type 2 diabetes.

Figure 2 Triage based on non-invasive tests for overall study population. From the study population of 3669 patients, 75 (2.0%) were identified who satisfied all the parameters of our algorithm: elevated alanine aminotransferase value, elevated fibrosis-4 score ≥ 1.3, and elevated FAST score > 0.35. ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; FIB4: Fibrosis-4.

Figure 3 Triage based on non-invasive tests for type 2 diabetes population. From subset of 737 patients with type 2 diabetes, 42 (5.7%) were identified who satisfied all the parameters of our algorithm: elevated alanine aminotransferase value, elevated fibrosis-4 score ≥ 1.3, and elevated FAST score > 0.35. ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; T2DM: Type 2 diabetes; FIB4: Fibrosis-4.