Noninvasive, simple, reproducible, and reliable biomarkers are greatly needed to differentiate nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) from nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). One hundred seventeen patients with biopsy-proven NAFLD were involved in this study. We combined 3 clinical variables to generate the NAFIC score originally: ferritin (≥200 (female) or ≥300 (male) ng/m
l), fasting insulin (≥10 μU/m
l), and type IV collagen 7S (≥5.0 ng/m
l). These parameters were selected as independent variables by multivariate analysis using logistic regression analysis. The presence of each variable gives 1 point in the combined score. The NAFIC score of NASH patients (n=65, 1.94±0.85) was significantly higher than that of simple steatosis patients (n=52, 0.58±0.67, p<0.0001). The percentage of NASH in NAFLD in a total score of 0, 1, 2, and 3 was 10.3% (3/29), 41.0% (16/39), 93.3% (28/30), and 94.7% (18/19), respectively. The NAFIC score can become one of noninvasive, simple, and useful biomarkers to differentiate NASH from NAFLD.
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