Non Alcoholic Steatohepatitis in Relation to Visceral and Subcutaneous Fat

Overview

Evaluate the relationship between the severity of fatty liver in NAFLD assessed by ultrasonography and CT and the visceral fat area measured by CT

Non alcoholic fatty liver disease is one of the most common causes of chronic liver disease world wide . Severe forms of NAFLD such as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis can progress to end-stage liver disease such as cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma. Therefore, investigating risk factors associated with hepatic steatosis is required to perform effective screening . Hepatic steatosis develops for a variety reasons but obesity is the most common associated condition. Obesity is considered a gateway disease and NAFLD is considered to be one of the phenotypes of metabolic syndrome, which is characterized by obesity with visceral fat accumulation, diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia. Individuals with severe obesity have a disproportionately high risk of comorbidities including nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The distribution of fat appears more important than the total fat mass in obesity .A predominantly upper body fat distribution increases the risks for the metabolic complications of obesity including hepatic steatosis especially when it is associated with increased intra abdominal fat . Most "metabolically obese" normal weight subjects have some increase in adipose tissue mass and insulin resistance probably due to an increase in visceral fat. Thus, subjects with a relatively low BMI can have gross increases in abdominal visceral fat, and others with a high BMI may have very little intra abdominal/visceral fat . Several studies suggested visceral adiposity to be a clinical predictor of hepatic steatosis . In addition, the severity of fatty liver has been linked to the VAT area as evaluated by CT.

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