Chronic hepatitis B comorbid with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: Contemporary insights and controversies

In China, a substantial number of patients suffer from chronic hepatitis B (CHB), and the incidence rate of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has been increasing in recent years, with a tendency of increase in the prevalence rate of CHB and NAFLD. Since the outcome of CHB or NAFLD is liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the comorbidity of these two diseases has attracted wide attention and extensive research. Currently, there are still controversies over the risk of HCC due to CHB comorbid with NAFLD, all-cause mortality rate, and the efficacy of antiviral therapy, and the mechanism of interaction remains unknown. Therefore, this article briefly reviews CHB comorbid with NAFLD and discusses the association between the two diseases, in order to provide a reference for clinical management.