Evaluating the Role Of Lipid Profile in Patients with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Prospective Study from Central India

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a leading cause of chronic liver disease throughout the world. A liver biopsy is a sensitive method for detecting NAFLD. However, a liver biopsy is a painful and invasive procedure that can result in rare but potentially fatal complications such as bleeding and is prone to sampling errors. Furthermore, given a large number of NAFLD patients, the use of liver biopsy is both clinically and financially impractical. A pattern of lipid profile among the NAFLD patients can function as a non-invasive method of diagnosis. Aims and objectives: To evaluate the relationship between laboratory lipid data and NAFLD to evaluate and confirm noninvasively the usefulness of serum lipid biochemistry and increasing the accuracy of NAFLD diagnosis.Materials and methods: Two hundred patients (age 18-70 years) were studied in the outpatient and inpatient department of medicine of a tertiary care center of central India from July 2018 to June 2020. NAFLD was diagnosed on basis of clinical history, laboratory findings, and radiological investigation, and prevalence was identified. The lipid profile of patients was compared with the gender and association was obtained. Results: The majority of the patients were in the age group of 35 to 45 (34%) and 45 to 55 (32%) years. NAFLD was more prevalent in the age group 45 to 55 (60.38%) followed by 35 to 45 (30.19%) (p=0.023). The prevalence of NAFLD was higher in females (33%) than in men (19.15%) and the overall prevalence was 26.5%. The risk of NAFLD was more with abnormal LDL (p=0.032), TG (p=0.024), and TC levels (p=0.008).Conclusion: The risk of NAFLD is more than those having abnormal LDL, TG, and TC levels