Frequency of fibrosis in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD): The role of metabolic syndrome.

OBJECTIVE

To compare the frequency of degree of hepatic fibrosis and steatosis in patients of Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) with and without metabolic syndrome.

METHODOLOGY

This analytical observational study was carried out at Department of Medicine /gastroenterology FRPMC affiliated hospital from Feb 2024 to July 2024. After ethical approval this study was performed with a sample of 130 patients of Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) recruited from OPD, randomized into two groups each containing 62 patients: N & M. Group-N patients only had NAFLD and Group-M patients had metabolic syndrome along with NAFLD. Transient Elastography (Fibrotouch) was used to get liver stiffness measurement (LSM) for degree of fibrosis and Ultrasound attenuation parameter (UAP) for degree of steatosis. The primary outcome was frequency of various degrees of fibrosis (F1, F2, F3 &F4) and steatosis (S1, S2, &S3) in both groups.

RESULTS

There were no patients with severe steatosis in Group-N, however, four (7.3%) patients had severe steatosis in Group-M (p value < 0.009). None of the patients had severe fibrosis in Group-N and eight (14.5%) patients had severe fibrosis in Group-M (p value < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

We concluded that the presence of metabolic syndrome in patients of Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is linked to higher degree of steatosis and fibrosis when compared with patients of NAFLD without metabolic syndrome.