Comparison of Demographic and Clinical Features of Two Cohorts of Adult Sri Lankans Having Metabolic Syndrome With and Without Ultrasonic NAFLD, Admitted to a Medical Unit of a Tertiary Care Center

Abstract

Purpose: To compare demographics and other clinical features of two cohorts of adult Sri Lankans who satisfied clinical criteria of metabolic syndrome with and without ultrasonic NAFLD, respectively. Methods: All patients who satisfied minimum current clinical criteria of metabolic syndrome, admitted to the principal author's unit from 1st of November 2007 to 31st of October 2009, were grouped into above categories and their clinico-demographic features were compared. Results: The study group encompassed 95, where ultrasonic NAFLD was seen in 74(83.1%). The age range of the study population was 22 to 78 years. The following table compares clinico-demographics of NAFLD and Non NAFLD groups. The results are shown in the table. There were two patients with SGPT> 300iu/L. The SGPT values of males (86.2 ± 97.2SD iu/L) showed statistically significant difference compared to females (58.7±41.3SD iu/L) in the total population. (P=0.0001) Conclusion: Ultrasonic NAFLD was observed in 83.1% of patients having metabolic syndrome indicating that alarmingly high proportion is proned to related hepatic complications of NAFLD. In the non NAFLD group, the mild transaminitis could have preceded the ultrasonic changes. Screening the “at risk” general population for metabolic syndrome with appropriate intervention seems to be the only rational option, but the cost effectiveness remains to be analyzed. There were no significant differences of dyslipidaemia, diabetes mellitus, BMI, hypertension and other clinico-demographics between the two cohorts.Table