The population of Pakistan is 220 million. One quarter of the population suffers from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which means close to 50 million Pakistanis have high deposits of fat in their liver. Among those who are suffering from NAFLD, 10% have serious consequences of the condition in the form of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. This is due to the prevalence of obesity, high blood pressure and sugar in our population.
The way to diagnose non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is to screen the high-risk metabolic patients. These are men, aged 40 and over, diabetic, and hypertensive, and will usually be showing very non-specific symptoms. It can be an incidental finding on an abdominal ultrasound where fat deposits are visible, an increased echogenicity of the liver. Sometimes patients present with upper abdominal pain, which leads to these ultrasound findings.
Now that hepatitis C treatment is under control, we are facing a new challenge. That challenge is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease all over the world, but moreso on the Indian subcontinent, in Pakistan and China. Prevention is the first goal - healthy lifestyle, healthy food, and exercise. If patients have advanced disease, there are a couple of drugs that can be applied. One is obeticholic acid, and many trials have shown that this drug helps remove fat from the liver, and arrest the progression of fibrosis and then liver cirrhosis.