Prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in adult psoriatic patients: A hospital based study from North India

Introduction: Psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease, is associated with many co-morbidities including metabolic syndrome. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the hepatic manifestations of metabolic syndrome. A few recent studies have shown that NAFLD is also frequent in psoriatic patients. Aim: The aimof the study was to analyze the prevalence of NAFLD among adult psoriatic patients. Material & Methods: 250 adult psoriatic patients who presented to Department of Dermatology were enrolled in the study. All the patients underwent a dedicated skin examination, abdominal sonography and fasting blood workup. Results: The overall prevalence of NAFLD among adult psoriatic patients was 46.8% in our study, while as the overall prevalence of NAFLD in India is between 9 and 19% in adult population. Thus, the prevalence of NAFLD in psoriatic patients is more than 2.5 fold higher. Also psoriatic patients with NAFLD had more severe disease as per psoriasis area and severity index (PASI) scores. Conclusion: Our findings suggests that NAFLD is more frequent in psoriatic patients and is also associated with severity of disease as per PASI score.