English

Abstract

BACKGROUND Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a clinicopathological syndrome characterized by obesity, dyslipidaemia, insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus (DM). NAFLD represents another component of metabolic syndrome. NAFLD and metabolic syndrome are associated with increased risk of atherosclerosis. METHODS In the present comparative cross-sectional study, 100 cases with incidental NAFLD and 100 healthy controls were subjected to detailed history, physical examination including body-mass index (BMI) and biochemical investigations including renal function tests (RFT), lipid profile and liver function tests (LFT). Microalbuminuria was measured in these subjects to evaluate microvascular renal damage. Subjects with alcoholic liver disease, chronic viral hepatitis, renal disease, etc were excluded. RESULTS The mean urine albumin creatinine ratio (UACR) in cases and controls was 35.81 ± 27.81 and 7.88 ± 0.78 respectively. The mean UACR in grade 1 fatty liver was 16.31 ± 5.45, in grade 2 fatty liver was 28.64 ± 12.91, and 72.8 ± 27.10 in grade 3 fatty liver and they were compared with each other and were found to be statistically significant with P value = 0.001. CONCLUSIONS The present study showed highly significant (P < 0.001) correlation between microalbuminuria and NAFLD. There was a positive correlation which progresses with increased grades of NAFLD. This correlation points towards a positive relationship between increased renal microvascular damage and progression to chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with NAFLD. The occurrence of NAFLD is increasing mainly due to increasing obesity and metabolic syndrome. The clinical implications of these findings for patient care are the detection of NAFLD by routine ultrasonography (USG) especially in obese people and urine analysis for microalbuminuria in these persons. This will help the clinician in determining cardiovascular risks and risk of CKD in these apparently healthy persons. KEYWORDS NAFLD, CKD, Albuminuria