assessment of nafld cases and its correlation to bmi and metabolic syndrome in healthy blood donors in kerman

aim : the aim of this study was to review cases of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (nafld) cases and to determine the prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease as a cause of elevated alanine aminotransferase (alt) in healthy blood donors in the permian area and also assess risk factors of nafld such as body mass index (bmi) and correlation with metabolic syndrome in these subjects. background : non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has been increasingly recognized as the most common pathological conditions affecting the liver. non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is now recognized as the hepatic component of the metabolic syndrome, which includes hyperlipidemia, glucose intolerance, obesity, and systemic hypertension. patients and methods : 2002 randomly selected blood donors inducted hi (participated in) this study. subjects with more than two times elevated serum alt level (were) chose for further follow up. subjects with persistently elevated alt level and negative laboratory results tor viral hepatitis b and c, autoimmune hepatitis, transferrine saturation <45% and a  negative history of alcohol and medication: who had evidence of liver steatosis on ct-scan were presumed to have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. results : 378 donors (20.5%) had elevated alt levels at first measurement. in 35 cases with persistently elevated serum alt level, in 22(62.9%) non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was the diagnosis. mean of bmi was 31.18±5.7 (kg/m 2 ) in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease subjects and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was correlated with metabolic syndrome in these subjects. conclusion : non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is the most common diagnosis for subjects with elevated serum alt level in healthy blood donors in kerman, iran.