• Hye Won Lee, Beom Kyung Kim, Seung Up Kim, Jun Yong Park, Kim Do Young DY Department of Internal Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea. , Sang Hoon Ahn, Kwang Joon Kim, and Kwang-Hyub Han.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea.
• Dig. Dis. Sci. 2017 Aug 1; 62 (8): 2150-2158.

Background/AimsTransient elastography (TE) can be used to assess the degree of liver fibrosis and steatosis. We investigated the prevalence and predictors of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) with or without significant liver fibrosis in the general population.MethodsA total of 3033 subjects without alcoholic or chronic viral liver diseases who underwent a medical health check-up including TE were recruited from April 2013 to August 2014. TE-defined NAFLD was defined as a controlled attenuation parameter of ≥250 dB/m, and significant liver fibrosis was defined as a liver stiffness (LS) value of ≥8 kPa.ResultsOverall, 1178 (42.9%) subjects had NAFLD. Subjects with NAFLD had significantly higher alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels and a higher prevalence of parameters related to metabolic syndrome, such as high blood pressure, a high body mass index (BMI), glucose intolerance, and dyslipidemia than did subjects without NAFLD (all P < 0.05). Age, male gender, ALT level, serum albumin, BMI, diabetes, hypertriglyceridemia, and LS values independently showed positive associations with the presence of NAFLD (all P < 0.05). In addition, concomitant significant liver fibrosis was identified in 60 (5.1%) subjects with NAFLD, and its independent predictors were age [odds ratio (OR) 1.054], ALT level (OR 1.019), BMI (OR 1.217), and diabetes (OR 1.987) (all P < 0.05).ConclusionsWe found that the prevalence of subjects with NAFLD was high (42.9%), and 5.1% of them had concomitant significant liver fibrosis. The risk factors found in this study can help identify which subjects with NAFLD are vulnerable to fibrosis progression.

40 keywords...

hide…