Naila Ismail, Farrukh Saeed, Hamid Hussain, Iqbal Mohammad, Farida Naseer, Fazal Ahmad.
Frequency of steatosis in chronic hepatitis c patients in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa. a clinical and histological study.
J Med Sci Jan ;20(2):71-4.

Objective: To assess steatosis histologically and correlate with body mass index in chronic hepatitis C patients. Material and Methods: This was a prospective observational study conducted at Gastroenterology ward and Department of Pathology at Combined Military Hospital, Peshawar from May 2007 to September 2008. A total of 100 adult patients who were HCV-RNA positive fulfilling the pre-requisites for liver biopsy were admitted. Liver biopsy was performed and analyzed for necroinflammation, fibrosis and steatosis. Steatosis was correlated with BMI by using Chi Square test. P value of 0.05 was considered as significant. Results: Fifty-four male and 46 female patients between ages of 13 to 70 years were studied. Forty-nine patients (49%) were overweight, 16 (16%) were obese. Twenty-nine (29%) patients showed grade I Steatosis, 8(8%) had grade II and 4 (4%) had grade III Steatosis. Strong correlation was found between Steatosis and BMI (P-value 0.0001). High BMI is strongly associated with females of >35 years of age, P-value 0.0001. Conclusion: Steatosis is related to higher BMI and together with necroinflammation results in accelerated disease process in chronic hepatitis C patients. Steatosis should always be assessed histologically and included in clinical as well as research analysis.

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