Study on clinico-histopathological changes of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in elderly male patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus / 中华老年医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To observe the incidence rate of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in elderly male patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and the features of pathological changes of liver. Methods The 89 cases with T2DM (T2DM group) and contemporary non-diabetic cases (control group, n=48) from 858 autopsy samples matched for gender and age were selected in the study. The histopathological changes of liver were observed by microscopy,histochemistry and immunohistochemistry. Results The incidence rates of NAFLD and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis(NASH) were 49.4% (44/89) and 14.6% (13/89) in T2DM group, 22.9 %(11/48) and 4.2% (2/48) in control group, respectively. The incidence rates of NAFLD and NASH were significantly higher in T2DM group than in control group(P＜0.01, P＜0.05). All of the NASH patients from T2DM group and one patient from control group were complicated with different stages of liver fibrosis. One patient from T2DM group was diagnosed as cirrhosis, no cirrhosis patient was found in control group. Conclusions Compared with control group, the incidence rate of NAFLD is higher and the damage of liver is more severe in T2DM group. The ratio of the progress from NAFLD to liver cirrhosis is low.