Comparison of clinical characteristics between lean and obese nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in the northeast Chinese population.

Introduction: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is seen commonly in patients with obesity, but there are many non-obese people who also have NAFLD, which we call lean NAFLD. The objective of this study is to compare the characters of lean and obese NAFLD individuals aimed to better understand the pathogenesis of NAFLD.

Material And Methods: A total of 496 NAFLD cases (history of alcohol consumption, medication used within the last 3 months, hepatitis virus infection, autoimmune or hereditary liver disease were excluded), divided into an obese (body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25 kg/m) NAFLD group ( = 395) and lean (BMI < 25 kg/m) NAFLD group ( = 101), were investigated.