title: Prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver in a hypercholesterolemic population of northwestern peninsular Malaysia.
abstract: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common liver disease worldwide and a frequent finding on ultrasound examination. NAFLD is considered as the liver component of metabolic syndrome and is linked to accelerated atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. No data from systematic studies regarding the prevalence of NAFLD are available for the Malaysian population. One hundred eighty untreated hypercholesterolemic volunteers underwent blood and ultrasound examinations to evaluate their livers. NAFLD was diagnosed in 102 subjects (56.7%) with similar prevalences between sexes. Of the 102 positive subjects 82 (80.4%) were graded as mild, 17 (16.7%) as moderate and 3 (2.9%) as severe fatty liver cases. Elevated fasting plasma glucose (FPG) levels were found in 13 of 180 subjects (7.2%), while elevated AST and ALT levels were seen in 30 (16.7%) and 22 (12.2%) of the180 subjects, respectively.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Magosso
authors.forename: Mukhtar Alam
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ansari
authors.forename: Yogheswaran
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gopalan
authors.forename: Mohamed Rizal
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Abu Bakar
authors.forename: Nurzalina Abdul
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Karim Khan
authors.forename: Jia Woei
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Bee Hong
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.forename: Kah Hay
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Yuen
authors.forename: Ibrahim
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lutfi Shuaib
authors.forename: Kalanithi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nesaretnam
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005234:Fatty Liver / Q000150:complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology; D008296:Malaysia / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D065626:Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease; D015995:Prevalence; D014463:Ultrasonography