Original articlePrevalence of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Women With Polycystic Ovary Syndrome
Section snippets
Methods
Medical records of reproductive-age women consecutively seen between April and November 2004 in a single endocrinology practice in New York City with expertise in the evaluation and management of PCOS were retrospectively reviewed. Women were included in the study population if they were 18 years of age or older at the time of the initial evaluation and met the consensus diagnostic criteria for PCOS from the 1990 National Institutes of Health conference in Bethesda, Maryland25: (1) menstrual
Results
Eighty-eight women were identified who fit our inclusion criteria. Demographic and clinical data of the study population are reported in Table 1. Forty-three percent of the study population was found to be lean, 15% overweight, and 42% obese by BMI criteria. The overall prevalence of hepatic steatosis (mild, moderate, or severe) as assessed by abdominal ultrasonography was 55% (48/88 subjects). The presence of steatosis was associated with a greater median BMI (31.1 vs 24.3 kg/m2, P = .009).
Discussion
NAFLD describes a clinicopathologic condition that is characterized by significant lipid deposition in the hepatocytes of the liver parenchyma in patients with no history of excessive alcohol consumption. The pathologic features of NAFLD range from simple hepatic steatosis (fatty liver) at the most clinically benign end of the spectrum to cirrhosis at the opposite extreme.
NASH is believed to be an intermediate stage of liver damage and is characterized by hepatic steatosis plus liver cell
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