Obesity and liver disease

Abstract

Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is a disease of emerging identity and importance. It is frequently associated with obesity, especially visceral fat, and is intimately related to fatty liver and markers of the insulin resistance syndrome. Both the prevalence and the severity of liver steatosis are related to body mass index, waist circumference, hyperinsulinaemia, hypertriglyceridaemia and impaired glucose tolerance or type 2 diabetes. The identification of obese patients who may progress from steatosis to NASH and from NASH to fibrosis/cirrhosis is an important clinical challenge. Substantial weight loss is accompanied by a marked attenuation of insulin resistance and related metabolic syndrome and, concomitantly, by a remarkable regression of liver steatosis in most patients, although increased inflammation may be detected in some subjects. Thus, NASH may be considered as another disease of affluence, as is the insulin resistance syndrome, and perhaps being part of it, especially in obese patients.