Background: Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is the most common
liver disease worldwide, it causes chronic hepatitis, which leads to cirrhosis
and hepatocellular carcinoma. We aimed to assess the value of liver fatty
acid binding protein (L-FABP) in the diagnosis of non-alcoholic fatty liver
disease in comparison to ultrasonography. Patients and Methods: Ninty
subjects were enrolled in this study who attended the Hepatology, Gastroenterology
and Internal medicine clinics in Benha University Hospitals between
January 2017 and January 2018 and divided into group I included 70 consecutive
patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease who were diagnosed by
ultrasound with or without elevated liver enzymes and group П included 20
healthy control subjects without NAFLD (by ultrasound) with normal liver
enzymes. Serum levels of L-FABP were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent
assay. Results: NAFLD patients were slightly older than healthy
subjects as mean age in group І was (37.74 ± 11.7) while in group П was (36.5
± 11.31). There was a slight increase in NAFLD in males, there was a high
prevalence of NAFLD in the urban population. L-FABP levels in NAFLD patients
were higher than in the control group (levels were 188.6 ± 34.94 and
137.7 ± 13.05 ng/l respectively). A strong correlation was found between
L-FABP and ALT, AST, BMI and glucose levels. Analysis of ROC curve revealed
that at a level 151.1 ng/sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy
were 83.3%, 71.8%, 31.3%, 96.6% and 73.3% respectively with AUC 0.839 and
at a level 189.5 ng/sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy were 90%,
How to cite this paper: Abdulaziz, B.A.,
Abdu, S.A., Amin, A.M., El Menyawi,
A.K.A.H., Ahmed, A., Khalil, M.A. and
Halim, W.A.A. (2019) Assessment of Liver
Fatty Acid Binding Protein (L-FABP) as a
Diagnostic Marker in Non-Alcoholic Fatty
Liver Disease. Open Journal of Gastroenterology,
9, 113-124.
https://doi.org/10.4236/ojgas.2019.96014
Received: May 9, 2019
Accepted: June 25, 2019
Published: June 28, 2019
Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and
Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution International
License (CC BY 4.0).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Open Access
B. A. Abdulaziz et al.
DOI: 10.4236/ojgas.2019.96014 114 Open Journal of Gastroenterology
90%, 95.4%, 95.4%, 88.9% with AUC was 0.950. Conclusion: Serum L-FABP
could be used as a new diagnostic biomarker for detecting NAFLD. |
