PE-170: Body Mass Index as a Predictor of Severity of Fibrosis from a Tertiary Liver Center in the Philippines = PE-170: Body Mass Index as a Predictor of Severity of Fibrosis from a Tertiary Liver Center in the Philippines

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Aims: A variety of clinical and biochemical factors have been proposed to predict liver fibrosis. Some of these entail high cost and are impractical in the 3rd world setting. Thus, the aim of this study is to determine of body mass index (BMI) predectis the severity of liver fibrosis as assessed by Transient Elastography (TE, Fibroscan®), seen in a local liver clinic. Methods: From 3207 patients seen at the Makati Medical Center Liver Clinic from Jan 2010 to Feb 2016 with various liver diseases, a total of 388 were enrolled into the study. Initial BMI and liver stiffness measurements (LSM) were obtained and subsequently followed up after patient education about lifestyle modification. Results: Out of the 388 patients studied, the ratio of males to females was 1:1. The mean age was 53.27±12.3 years. The most common indication for TE was a diagnosis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) at 56.7%; followed by mixed liver disease, 39.5%; Hepatitis B, 3%; and Hepatitis C, 0.7%. Subsequent follow up showed no change in patients’ BMI (26.7±3.68 vs 26.5±3.52, P>0.05). Likewise there was a positive correlation between the BMI and the LSM (P<0.05). Conclusions: Our results showed that BMI may be a useful predictor of severity of fibrosis in patients with liver disease in the 3rd world setting where cost of fibrosis testing maybe prohibitive. This study likewise shows that patient education is a key factor in the reversal of fibrosis and that efforts to emphasize this are lacking.