Portal lymphadenopathy predicts nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and advanced fibrosis in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Saleh Daher, Namma Lev Cohen, Muhammad Massarwa, Mahmud Mahamid, Mira Nasser, Wadi Hazou, Rani Oren, Rifaat Safadi, Tawfik Khoury

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background and aim The progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is believed to be the driver for future development of fibrosis and cirrhosis. Nevertheless, there remains a clear deficit in non-invasive methods for the diagnosis of NASH. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of portal lymphadenopathy (PL) in biopsy- proven NAFLD patients and to determine whether PL correlates with NAFLD stage and severity. Methods A retrospective study included biopsy-proven NAFLD patients with up to date (within one year) abdominal imaging by computed tomography (CT) and/or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Patients were clustered into three groups based on their NAFLD Activity Score (NAS): NAS1-2 (mild), NAS3-4 (moderate) and NAS5 (advanced). We Assessed for association between PL and other clinical and laboratory findings with NAS, NAS components and fibrosis. Results Seventy-five patients with NAFLD and no other competing etiologies for liver diseases or PL were included. The mean age was 50.7±14.84 years with male predominance (N = 47, 62.7%). Twenty-five (33.3%), 37 (49.3%) and 13 (17.3%) patients had mild, moderate and advanced NAS, respectively. PL significantly correlated with advanced NAS 5 (Fisher’s (F) 9.5, P = 0.009). Correlation was driven mainly by a link to hepatocytes ballooning (F of 5.9, P = 0.043). In addition, PL significantly correlated with portal inflammation (F 4.29, P = 0.038). As for hepatic fibrosis, the F test wasn’t significant, though spearman’s coefficient (SC) was significant (0.277, P = 0.012). On multivariate analysis, PL was identified as a sole predictor of advanced NAS score (Odds ratio of 2.68, P = 0.002). Incorporation of PL into noninvasive fibrosis scores improved their diagnostic yield. Conclusion PL predicts severity of NAFLD. Its presence may serve as a novel radiological marker for NAFLD/NASH differentiation and disease progression.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere0207479
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume13
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2018
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Daher et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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