Until the end of the 90′s of the last century, rather little attention was paid to the issue of the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), perhaps due to the fact that the newly discovered hepatitis C virus did attract a paramount interest of hepatologists and researchers.On the other side, fatty liver was considered a relatively uncommon cause of liver damage, occurring almost exclusively in obese females, often associated with non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM), and with a relatively benign prognosis.