The study of the predictive factors for the presence and severity of hepatic steatosis

Abstract

Hepatic steatosis or “fatty liver“ is one of the most frequent hepatic diseases. n this study we try to find a correlation between the presence of hepatic steatosis (HS) and age, gender, body mass index (BMI), hypercholesterolemia (HCL), hyperglycemia (HG) and Hypertriglyceridemia (HTG). Can they predict the occurrence of hepatic steatosis? The study was randomized and prospective. We studied 727 subjects for 7 months. The subjects were from a physician's cabinet. The group was formed of 40% men and 60% women with age between 20 and 97 years old. For the evaluation of hepatic steatosis we used Ultrasound Siemens Sonoline 2 with a transducer of 3.5MHz. And for the determination of level of hepatic steatosis we used visual scale by comparing the liver with renal cortical. We splitted the level of steatosis in: absent (0), low (1), moderate (2) and severe (3). We considered abnormally high these values: hyperglycemia>120mg%, hypercholesterolemia>200%, hypertriglyceridemia>160%. 72.35% of our subjects had different levels of steatosis. The most important prognostic factor for steatosis is HCL (Odds ratio=22.58) followed by HTG (Odds ratio=6.25) and high BMI (ODDS ratio=5.65). Subjects's gender is not a prognostic factor, gender distribution being uniform (Pearson Chi square p=0.14). The prediction of steatosis level is linked through a linear relation with the BMI value and the cholesterol's level, while age and hyperglycemia are not predictors for hepatic steatosis. Concluding, there is a direct and very strong correlation between HCL and SH level (rho=0.679. p=0.000), the prediction is very strong in association with HTG. Secondary factors of prediction are HTG (without HCL) and obesity. Indifferent factors are gender, sex and HG. People with HCL, HTG and high values of BMI are more likely to be discovered on an ultrasound examination with steatosis liver.