Cryptogenic cirrhosis and NASH: entities in evolution and involution

Cryptogenic cirrhosis is a clinical entity which has the potential for better diagnosis of actual underlying maladies with future advancements in medicine. Current understanding of CC is rapidly undergoing transformation (Figures 1 & 2). In the light of available evidence of frequent disappearance of fat in NASH-associated cirrhosis, CC explants showing steatosis, allografts demonstrating the full blown recurrence of NASH in CC, and the association of CC with diabetes and obesity, suggests CC to be more proximately linked with NAS than believed until now (Figure 2). However, there are subsets of patients within CC that appear to emerge from other etiologies. With increasing clarity of NASH pathogenesis, a useful biomarker might soon be available. Advancements in diagnostics and our understanding of NASH are likely to elucidate NASH-associated cirrhosis as the predominant cause of cryptogenic cirrhosis.