Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in lean and obese patients in Saudi patients from a single center

Fatty liver is a disease caused by the accumulation of fat in the liver. It is one of the major risk factors for developing cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Saudi Arabia is one of the most prevalent countries in diabetes and obesity; the overall prevalence of diabetes is 23.7% and obesity is 35.6%.

To study the correlation between fatty liver finding on abdominal ultrasound (US) and their clinical and biochemical profile including BMI, blood glucose level, lipid profile, liver function tests, and blood pressure in both group lean and obese patients.

Cross-sectional study of 346 fatty liver ultrasound-proven patients were enrolled in the study from January to May 2016 in King Saud Hospital- Qassim, Saudi Arabia.

Mean age of the participants was 50.3 years. Female participants were 55% of the cohort. Participants were divided based on their BMI: BMI <25 (lean), BMI of 25-30 (overweight and mild obesity), and BMI >30 (morbid obesity). We found that cholesterol (P = 0.007) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) (P = 0.015) were higher in lean compared to others (5 and 3.1), respectively. Gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) was higher in mildly obese patients (113.2) and ALT, which was higher in lean patients (60.4). In addition, 34.5% of the overall patients had Diabetes Mellitus (DM). We found that HbA1c was lower in lean (7.3) compared to morbidly obese patients (7.6). Platelets counts were higher in morbidly obese patients (278) compared to other groups.

High cholesterol and LDL strongly correlated with lean fatty liver patients. There was a significant relationship between the female gender and the risk of development of fatty liver. However, liver enzymes were within the normal range, except GGT, which was higher in all the groups, with the highest value in mildly obese patients. Therefore, they are not sensitive for diagnosing fatty liver patients.