Prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in type 2 diabetic patients in correlation with coronary artery disease

Introduction: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a condition characterized by excess accumulation of fat in the liver occurring in people who consume little or no alcohol. This study was aimed at estimating the prevalence of fatty liver in type 2 diabetic patients using ultrasonography and to also to study the correlation between coronary risk factors, coronary artery disease and fatty liver. Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted on 150 patients above the age group of 30yrs who were already diagnosed of type 2 diabetes mellitus and on treatment for T2DM were recruited according to inclusion criteria Results: In the present study it was observed that 54 % of the diabetic patients had fatty liver and 46 % had no fatty liver disease on ultrasonography. Out of the 81 diabetic patients who had fatty liver, grade I fatty liver or mild steatosis was observed in 69.1 % cases while 44.9% of cases with no fatty liver disease and 49.4% of cases with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and were in the age group of 51- 60 yrs with male predilection. 88 patients out of 150 were hypertensive, in patients with no fatty liver disease 59.4 % patients presented with hypertension and 58% hypertensive patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Mean BMI, waist circumference, HBA1c and liver enzymes (AST and ALT) were significantly higher in patients with fatty liver than in patients without fatty liver. The mean total cholesterol levels (178.18), the mean triglyceride levels (154.9) and mean LDL cholesterol (103.8) were significantly higher in patients with fatty liver when compared to those without fatty liver. Mean HDL cholesterol in patients with fatty liver was 43.3 which were significantly lower than mean HDL cholesterol of 46.21 in patients without fatty liver. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome (66.7%) and CAD (59.3%) were significantly higher in the NAFLD subgroup. Conclusion: The prevalence of NAFLD in type 2 diabetics is very high. NAFLD is associated with higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome and coronary artery disease. There is clustering of traditional coronary risk factors in patients with NAFLD.