Assessment of the prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in regular and non-regular blood and plasma donors

Non-alcoholic liver disease (NAFLD) is a spectrum of diseases, ranging from non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) which can lead to liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Nonalchololic fatty liver  is the most prevalent hepatic disorder worldwide which can affect up to the one out of four adults. Little is known about the prevalence of nonalchololic fatty liver among regular donors of blood products. The current study shows the prevalence of nonalchololic fatty liver  in regular plasma and blood donors with a discontinuous donor population.

In this case-control study, we non-randomly enrolled 400 volunteers of blood donors who met the blood donation criteria after signing the written informed consent. All patients underwent hepatobiliary ultrasonography to evaluate fatty liver. LFT (Liver Function Test) and demographic criteria had been submitted in data base. All data were described by central dispersion indices and analyzed by Mann-Whitney U test and chi-square.

No difference was seen regarding gender and mean age between groups (p-value of 0.441 and 0.635, respectively). According to univariate analysis there was no significant difference between the two groups regarding the prevalence of fatty liver (p= 0.264) or its staging (p= 0.9). In addition, OR and RR were 1.17 and 1.11, respectively; both not being significant (p= 0.461).

The prevalence of NAFLD has no significant correlation with both regular blood donors and non-regular blood donors.