The frequency of fatty liver in sonography of patients without liver diseases background and its correlation with blood cholesterol and triglyceride

The fatty liver is one of the important causes of the chronic liver diseases in both children and
adults. Infiltration of fat in liver is associated with an increasing in its echogenicity, depending on
the severity of the fat infiltration. In the present study, the prevalence of fatty liver was assayed in a
group of patients who referred to the Khatam’ Hospital Zahedan, Southeast of Iran, for sonography
concerning some diseases other than hepatic disorders. Patients with confounding causatives of
fatty liver, i.e. using steroids, Methotrexatc, alcohol, as well as diabetes and pregnancy, were
excluded from the study. The sonography of 247-screened subjects was performed and the
diagnosed fatty livers were classified based on the standard grading. They were subsequently
referred to the hospital laboratory for the measurement of their blood cholesterol and triglyceride
(TG). The subjects included 177 (71.65%) females and 70 (28.35%) males between 30-60 years
with an average of 42 years of age. The results showed that 81 cases (32.8%) indicated to have
fatty liver. No correlation between the presence of fatty liver and age groups was observed.
However, the observed fatty livers showed significant correlations with gender and the level of
blood cholesterol and triglyceride (P<0.0001). Also, it was found that the TG level correlated with
different grades of the fatty livers (P<0.01), whereas the level of total cholesterol showed no
correlation in this regard. It was found that the frequency of fatty liver in the studied area is twice
as many as that in other countries, putting a large population at risk of liver failure. Further studies
are required to determine the exact causes of and their contribution in leading fatty liver, towards
designing prevention and control programs.