Hepatology Highlights

Autor: Méndez Sánchez Nahum

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Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in Brazil. Clinical and histological profile Cotrim H, et al. This is an epidemiological and clinical study carried out in Brazil. The authors studied 1280 patients from 16 Brazilian centers. The mean age of patients was 49.68 ± 13.59 years; 53.3% were males and 85% were asymptomatic. Hyperlipidemia was observed in 66.8% cases, obesity in 44.7%, overweight in 44.4%, diabetes in 22.7%, and toxins exposure in 10%. Metabolic syndrome was found in 41.3% cases. Elevated levels of ALT, AST and GGT were reported in 55.8%, 42.2% and 63.1% cases, respectively. Liver biopsy performed in 437 cases showed: isolate steatosis in 42% cases, steatohepatitis in 58% and 27% of them also presented fibrosis. Cirrhosis was observed in 15.4% and hepatocellular carcinoma in 0.7%. The authors concluded that NAFLD in Brazil is more frequent in asymptomatic males. Also the steatohepatitis with fibrosis and cirrhosis were a significant diagnosis. Although the present study showed similar metabolic profile of Brazilian patients with NAFLD than those previously reported in other studies around the world, it is important to analyze carefully the results and give some comments. Firstly, to my knowledge, this is the first study in Latin America that includes a large number of patients from various centers of Brazil. In fact, the sample size is large and representative of the general population, only few studies on NAFLD such as those carried out in the United States and in the North of Italy have included a large sample size. It would be convenient if the authors of the present study could analyze their results by ethnic group like in the Dallas study did. Brazil is a country with a mixed population: white, mixed white and black, black, japanese, arab, and other Amerindian groups.

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2011-02-11   |   630 visitas   |   Evalua este artículo 0 valoraciones

Vol. 10 Núm.1. Enero-Marzo 2011 Pags. 3-4 Ann Hepatol 2011; 10(1)