According to a story from ibdnewstoday.com, a recent study from Italy suggests that people with severe cases of inflammatory bowel disease are more likely to develop non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Additionally, the study revealed that this disease tended to manifest differently in people who already had inflammatory bowel disease when compared to those who did not.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a term used to describe any inflammatory conditions of the colon and/or small intestine. The principal types are Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, although there are other forms as well. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is common in people who are obese, and occurs when fat begins to build up around the organ. This buildup is associate with abnormalities and loss of liver function. It is also associated closely with more severe disease of the liver, such as cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma (a type of liver cancer). The study conducted was meant to further understand the connection between IBD and NAFLD and how these two diseases can affect one another.
The study used a total of 223 subjects, all of which has NAFLD. 78 people in this group had both NAFLD and IBD (either Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis). For this group, over 55 percent had IBD that was classified as severe. Interestingly, the group with both diseases tended to be younger than the group with just NAFLD. They were also less likely to have major liver damage but tended to have greater levels of inflammatory indicators. The general trend seemed to suggest that people with both conditions tended to have advanced cases of IBD, with greater symptoms of inflammation, more relapses during the past year, and extensive involvement of the intestinal tract.
Clearly more research will need to be done to understand the connection between these two diseases, and NAFLD presented itself differently in patients with IBD versus those without. The researchers also noted that the liver disease in people with IBD responded to treatment with anti-TNA alpha therapy. While the study helped show the increase in risk for NAFLD as IBD worsened, more study will be needed to further compare how prognostic outcomes could be different for this group of patients.
