The effect of NAFLD (non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) on long-term outcome of chronic hepatitis B in Iranian patients

Background: The influence of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease on the outcome of chronic hepatitis B disease, including viral, biochemical and histologic characteristics, in Iranian patients is not yet fully un- derstood. Aim: To evaluate the effect of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) on long-term histology- cal, biochemical and viral outcome of chronic he- pa-tictis B in Iranian patients. Methods: We retro- spec-tively evaluated 94 “e Ag” negative chronic hepatitis B patients (with NAFLD: 44, without NAFLD: 50). Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease was diagnosed based on liver biopsy according to Kleiner classifica-tion. Liver biopsy was done for all patients. Serologi-cal and biochemical variables were evaluated with repeated measure analysis. Results: Non-Alcoholic Fat- ty Liver Disease (NAFLD) was present in 47% of the patients (44 out of 94 patients). In the NAFLD group, increase in AST, ALT, stage (P = 0.002), grade, and total score of liver biopsy were independently related to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, while HBV-DNA viral load did not correlate with the presence of a fatty liver. Conclusion: Abnormalities of liver enzymes and liver histopathology are more prevalent in concurrent chronic hepatitis B and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD).