return to press release index 6 October 2006 Fatty Liver Disease Closely Inter-Related with Diabetes Mellitus
Diabetes mellitus is the major component of metabolic syndrome. About 10% of the Hong Kong population has diabetes mellitus. Oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) is gold standard for the diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. The Department of Medicine and Therapeutics of the Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong has conducted a study to investigate the proportion of NAFLD patients who had undiagnosed diabetes mellitus by OGTT. From 2004 to 2005, 124 patients had NAFLD confirmed by liver biopsy. Among them, 60 had diabetes mellitus and 64 patients did not have known diabetes mellitus. After oral glucose tolerance test, 15 of the 64 patients (23%) of patients were found to have undiagnosed diabetes and an additional of 25 (39%) patients had impaired glucose tolerance. Severe liver fibrosis was more common among NAFLD patients who had diabetes (17%) than those who had no diabetes (0%). Another study was conducted in 2004 to 2005, 80 NAFLD patients were studied on the detailed metabolic profile, which was compared to 41 age and gender matched healthy individuals. Metabolic syndrome was commonly associated with NAFLD. Diabetes mellitus was an independent factor that increased the risk of NAFLD by over 50 folds. Steatohepatitis is a severe form of NAFLD with evidence of inflammation and/or fibrosis in the liver. Among the 80 NAFLD patients, 52 patients had steatohepatitis and 34 (65%) of them have diabetes mellitus. These studies confirm that NAFLD and metabolic syndrome are closely inter-related. NAFLD is one of the presentations of metabolic syndrome and can be an early predictor of diabetes mellitus. On the other hand, patients with metabolic syndrome have a higher risk of NAFLD and more severe liver disease. Therefore, The Chinese University of Hong Kong recommends all diabetic patients should be screened for fatty liver disease and all patients with fatty liver should receive OGTT to look for undiagnosed diabetes. |