Hepatic steatosis is highly prevalent but is not correlated with stiffness in autoimmune hepatitis

Abstract

The prevalence and impact of hepatic steatosis among patients with autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is not well described.

We conducted a cross-sectional study to determine the prevalence of hepatic steatosis in AIH patients and examined its relationship with hepatic fibrosis using vibration controlled transient elastography. Liver stiffness measurement (LSM), controlled attenuation parameter (CAP), gender, current age, and body mass index (BMI) were collected from 277 AIH patients. Hepatic steatosis was defined as CAP >263 db/m.

The study participants were mostly female (82%) with an average age of 49 years and BMI 29.7 kg/m2. Mean LSM was 12.5 (standard deviation 13.5) kPa and CAP was 244 (standard deviation 63) db/m. The prevalence of coexisting steatosis was 33.2%, and steatosis did not correlate with LSM (r = 0.05, P = .46). In this study, only gender (females with 31% lower LSM on average compared to males, P = .001) and BMI (each unit increase of BMI resulted in a 1.48% increase on average LSM, P = .01) correlated with LSM. Male gender had significant association with increased LSM, after controlling for age, BMI, and CAP (P = .001).

This exploratory study using noninvasive vibration controlled transient elastography revealed hepatic steatosis is highly prevalent in patients with AIH but not associated with liver fibrosis.