A importância da ultrassonografia no diagnóstico da doença hepática gordurosa não alcóolica

Abstract

Introduction: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is considered the most common cause of liver disease in the world, being also a hepatic manifestation of the metabolic syndrome. In this context, the objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of non-alcoholic hepatic steatosis diagnosed by ultrasound in patients seen at an outpatient clinic of a Higher Education Institution in the city of Belém - PA. Methodology: Descriptive, documentary and cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach carried out with 115 patients who underwent abdominal ultrasound at the Centro de Especialidades Médicas of Centro Universitário do Pará in 2019. The association between metabolic syndrome and non-alcoholic liver steatosis was assessed by the test Fisher's exact, considering p≤0.05 statistically significant. Results: Most patients were female (71.3%), aged between 50 and 69 years old (53%), brown (90.4%) and married or in a stable relationship (41.7%). There was a high prevalence of obese patients (43.5%) with arterial hypertension (69.6%) and diabetics (32.2%). The prevalence of non-alcoholic hepatic steatosis was 72.2%, statistically associated with the presence of metabolic syndrome (p = 0.0001), where 89.1% of patients who had this syndrome had non-alcoholic hepatic steatosis. Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of non-alcoholic hepatic steatosis among patients, associated with metabolic syndrome. Therefore, it is emphasized that the early diagnosis of hepatic steatosis helps to monitor individuals with a chance of developing metabolic syndrome. In addition, ultrasonography proved to be a sensitive and effective test for the detection of hepatic steatosis, given the high prevalence of this disorder in the population studied.