Introduction: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is one of the most common liver diseases. It's prevalence among patients with metabolic risk factors (obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, lipid disorders) without previously recognized liver disease is not completely known. Aims of our study were to determine the prevalence of liver lesions (elevated alanin aminotransferase (ALT), gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) above normal range and ultrasound signs of liver steatosis) among the study group of patients with at least one metabolic risk factor, to compare it with the control group with no risk factor, to investigate it's association with the number of metabolic risk factors and to identify it's closest independent predictors.
Methods: Patients with other known liver diseases were excluded. Among 482 patients 429 were in the study group and 53 in the control group.
Results: In the study group the prevalence ofALT, GGT elevation and signs ofsteatosis was 12.1, 29.9, 38.3%, comparing to 5.7, 11.9 and 5.7% in the control group respectively. The differences were statistically significant. With the increasing number of risk factors we found growing prevalence of GGT elevation and signs of steatosis, but ALT elevation was equally prevalent. In multiple logistic regression the only independent predictor of ALT elevation was obesity, predictors of GGT elevation were type 2. diabetes and signs of steatosis, signs of steatosis were independently associated with overweight, obesity, type 2 diabetes and hypertriglyceridemia.
Conclusions: Markers of liver disease do have a clinical and prognostic impact on the liver and cardiometabolic risk and therefore we suggest they should be actively screened in this group of patients.