Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease among visitors to a hepatitis awareness programme.
OBJECTIVE
Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is rapidly becoming the most common liver disease worldwide. The present study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of NAFLD among the visitors screened on World Hepatitis Day 2010 and 2011.


METHODS
Attendees of the hepatitis awareness programme (n = 928) were offered screening to rule out liver ailments. The participants were evaluated on history, body mass index (BMI) measurement, blood tests for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), anti-hepatitis C virus (anti-HCV), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels and abdominal ultrasound (US).


RESULTS
On ultrasonography, fatty liver was present in 142 of 806 subjects who were found negative for viral serology and had no history of regular alcohol intake. This accounted for 15.3% of all the visitors. Comparing them with the rest of the serology-negative alcohol-negative subjects, there were more housewives (p = 0.005) with fatty liver. They were older with mean age 43.3 +/- 12.1 years compared to 33.1 +/- 16.1 years (p = 0.000) in patients without fatty liver and had a higher BMI 28.6 +/- 6.0 kg/m2 vs. 22.2 +/- 5.3 kg/m2 (p = 0.000). Regression analysis suggested BMI as the only significant independent risk factor (p = 0.000). However, 32 subjects with fatty liver had BMI < 25 kg/m2 and 6 of them had diabetes mellitus. Thirty-one subjects (21.8%) with fatty liver had raised ALT level (p = 0.000) and possible non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) which accounts for 3.34% (31/928) of the total visitors.


CONCLUSIONS
This analysis reveals that our general population is at risk of having NAFLD and NASH and these should be looked into even in non-obese persons.
Zaigham
Z
Abbas
Arzoo
A
Saeed
Syed Mujahid
SM
Hassan
Nasir Hassan
NH
Luck
Arsalan
A
Khan
Mirza Naqi
MN
Zafar
Kehkashan Zehra
KZ
Hossain
Syed Muhammad
SM
Faiq
D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005234:Fatty Liver / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000821:virology*; D005260:Female; D006509:Hepatitis B / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism; D006526:Hepatitis C / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D065626:Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease; D015995:Prevalence