[Prevalence of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) among biopsied cases of a urban hospital in Japan: significance of measurement of serum ferritin in the detection of NASH].

From April 1989 to December 2004, we performed liver biopsy on 475 patients and obtained biopsy proven 35 cases of non-alcoholic fatty liver. Among them, 18 cases were diagnosed as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). During the last three years, we have tried to detect NASH using ultrasonography and elevated value of serum ferritin (> 300 ng/ml).