Steatohepatitis Is Not Associated with an Increased Risk for Fibrosis Progression in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Table 2

Comparison of clinical characteristics at baseline and follow-up between patients with and without progression of fibrosis.

	No fibrosis progression; (%) or median ()	Range	Fibrosis progression; (%) or median ()	Range	value
Baseline biopsy
Sex, male (%)	22 (65)		15 (58)		0.6
Age (years)	42.5	19–70	50	20–66	0.28
BMI (kg/m^2)	26.7	23.5–38.7	26.6	21.2–32.2	0.29
T2DM, (%)	6 (18)		4 (15)		0.58
Hypertension, (%)	7 (21)		7 (27)		0.4
Platelets (×10^9/L)	265	113–347	233	56–332	0.48
ALT (U/L)	92	22–307	86	10–264	0.53
AST (U/L)	49	29–135	46	14–288	0.64
Bilirubin (mg/dL)	0.58	0.35–2.22	0.53	0.16–1.29	0.65
Albumin (g/dL)	4.4	3.3–5.3	4.4	3.2–5.2	0.84
PK-INR	1.0	0.9–1.3	1.0	1.0–1.2	0.45
Total cholesterol (mg/dL)	232	77–402	189	127–340	0.09
NASH, yes (%)	19/30 (63)		14/24 (58)		0.71
Follow-up biopsy
Years of follow-up	5.5	1.1–27.2	16.2	1.7–33.7	0.01
Age (years)	52	28–83	66	21–84	<0.01
BMI (kg/m^2)	27.8	24.7–38.7	27.1	21–35	0.3
Delta BMI	1.9	−7.5 to 6.4	0.8	−5.0 to 8.1	0.29
T2DM, (%)	18 (53)		12 (46)		0.4
Hypertension, (%)	13 (38)		11 (42)		0.48
Platelets (×10^9/L)	238	61–465	215	92–505	0.25
ALT (U/l)	59	11–343	64	17–604	0.62
AST (U/I)	41	13–238	53	19–299	0.04
Bilirubin (mg/dL)	0.58	0.23–1.87	0.79	0.23–5.73	0.22
Albumin (g/dL)	4.2	1.7–5.2	3.7	2.0–4.8	0.007
PK-INR	1.0	0.9–1.3	1.0	0.9–1.6	0.01
Total cholesterol (mg/dL)	208	93–347	178	131–290	0.17
NASH, yes (%)	10/24 (42)		9/17 (53)		0.54

Abbreviations: BMI: body mass index; DM2: diabetes mellitus type 2; ALT: alanine aminotransferase; AST: aspartate aminotransferase; ALP: alkaline phosphatase; GT: gamma glutamyltransferase; NAS: nonalcoholic fatty liver disease activity score.