Citation
Title: Assessment of Carotid Lesions in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Patients
Authors: Sathish Kumar A, Sridhar K, Srinivas MG, Ajith Roni D, Srikanth Reddy Y, Lalit Nihal, Pavan Kumar Reddy Y, Panil Kumar K, Ram Mohan, Pradeep PV, Janaki Ram N, Mahaboob V Shaik, Thankappan KR
Paper Index:
12.2014-92439933
Abstract
Objective: Assessment of carotid lesions in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease patients. To know the association of c-IMT with cardiovascular risk factors in NAFLD patients.
Background: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) affects 10-24% of general population across various countries and in India it varies between 9-32%. Long-term studies revealed that NAFLD patients had an increased mortality rate, with cardiovascular disease being one of the leading causes of death. To this purpose, we evaluated the risk of cardiovascular disease in NAFLD patients using Carotid ultrasound.
Methods: 50 patients with NAFLD based on USG abdomen were enrolled. Patients were excluded if they were alcoholics or having HBV, HCV, HIV, auto immune, Wilson or having chronic liver disease or pregnant. We measured visceral fat thickness (VFT), subcutaneous fat thickness (SFT), carotid intima media thickness (c-IMT.) and carotid plaque prevalence.
Results: A total of 5276 patients were attended to medical gastroenterology OPD during the period of April 2010 to Nov 2011. USG abdomen was done in 826 patients for various reasons, among them 306 (37%) were diagnosed to have fatty liver and 111 (13.5%) out of them were having NAFLD. The Mean age of NAFLD patients was 54.32±9.60 yrs. The mean values of SFT 20.81±4.71 mm, VFT 53.14±17.42 mm and c-IMT 0.86±0.13 mm were higher in NAFLD patients than controls 16.07±3.29, (p=0.000), 40.64±11.46 mm (p= 0.000) and 0.81±0.08 mm, (p <0.05) respectively. Plaques prevalence was also more in NAFLD patients 18/50 (36%) than controls 6/50 (12%) (p-0.009). Among NAFLD patients, the c-IMT was significantly higher in patients with risk factors for cardiovascular disease than those who were not having.
Conclusion: The prevalence of NAFLD in our study was 13.5%. C-IMT was significantly higher in the NAFLD group than controls. The relative risk of plaques prevalence was 1.375. Screening of c-IMT might be valuable in NAFLD patients, for detecting subclinical atherosclerosis.
Key Words: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, visceral fat thickness, subcutaneous fat thickness, carotid intima media thickness
Corresponding Author
Dr Mahaboob V Shaik
Narayana Medical College & Hospitals
Nellore-524003, Andhrapradesh, INDIA
Email: drmahaboobvs@gmail.com