CORRELATION BETWEEN SONOGRAPHIC GRADES OF NONALCOHOLIC FATTY LIVER DISEASE AND LIPID PROFILE

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a form of metabolic liver disease in which fat changes (steatosis) are associated with lobular inflammation, hepatocyte injury, polymorphs, or liver fibrosis. Most patients with NAFLD have no symptoms or signs of liver disease at the time of diagnosis. However, many patients report fatigue or malaise and a sensation of fullness or discomfort on the right side of the upper abdomen. Hepatomegaly is the only physical finding in most patients. Objective: To evaluate the correlation between sonographic grades of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and lipid profile at St. Paul’s hospital millennium medical college, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2024. Methods: Institutional based retrospective chart review was conducted at St. Paul’s Hospital Millennium Medical College from June 2024 to July 2024. The USG findings were accessed from radiology information system (RIS). The collected data was entered into Epi Data version 7.2.1 and exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. For descriptive statistics tables, graphs showing the frequency mean and standard deviation were used. The degree and direction of the ordinal relationship between the nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and lipid profile were measured using the spearman correlation coefficient. Result: There were 426 patients in all who had been identified with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease on ultrasound, the majority of whom had grade 1 nonalcoholic fatty liver 56.6%, (95%CI: 51.7%-61.3%). Median age of 48 years (IQR: 38-58) were included in this study. The majority 234 (54.6%) of the participants were females and 140 (59.8%) of them found in grade 1 nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. According to spearman’s analysis, the grade of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease had weak correlation with triglyceride (r<0.3, p<0.001) and total cholesterol (r<0.3, p<0.05). Conclusion and recommendation: In conclusion, regarding this study, TG and TC had a statistically significant weak correlation with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. This emphasizes how crucial it is to use blood-based markers to evaluate the degree and metabolic effects of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. More multicenter longitudinal studies are required to confirm these findings and provide insight into the underlying processes causing these relationships. Key words: Sonographic, Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, Lipid profile