Abstract
Patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) have impaired health-related quality of life including physical and mental state. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a useful tool for evaluation of brain activity and depressive state. This study aimed to determine the brain activity of female NAFLD patients using NIRS. Cerebral oxygenated hemoglobin (oxy-Hb) concentration during a verbal fluency task (VFT) was measured using NIRS in 24 female NAFLD patients and 15 female healthy controls. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) questionnaire was administered to both groups before NIRS. There was no significant difference in CES-D score between groups. However, the oxy-Hb concentration and number of words during the VFT were less in NAFLD compared to healthy controls. The mean value of oxy-Hb concentration during 0–60 s VFT in the frontal lobe was also smaller in NAFLD patients compared to healthy controls (0.082 ± 0.126 vs. 0.183 ± 0.145, P < 0.001). Cerebral oxygen concentration is poorly reactive in response to VFT in female NAFLD patients. This may indicate an association between decreased brain activity and NAFLD regardless of depression.
Highlights
Some patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) have depression in addition to a positive association between depression and liver histological severity of NAFLD [1,2,3,4], other studies have found no association between depression and NAFLD [5,6]
The scores of physical and mental domains in the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire and Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire have been observed to be low in patients with NAFLD, including patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), compared to the general population or to patients with hepatitis B [7,8,9]
The clinical characteristics of the NAFLD patients and healthy controls are shown in Table 1 (S1 File)
Summary
Some patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) have depression in addition to a positive association between depression and liver histological severity of NAFLD [1,2,3,4], other studies have found no association between depression and NAFLD [5,6]. The scores of physical and mental domains in the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire and Chronic Liver Disease Questionnaire have been observed to be low in patients with NAFLD, including patients with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), compared to the general population or to patients with hepatitis B [7,8,9]. These results imply that NAFLD patients have depressive state even without apparent depression.
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