Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in India--is it different?

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an emerging clinical entity. There is limited data on NAFLD from India. The objective of this article was to review all the published literature on NAFLD from India. The epidemiological studies including prevalence ofNAFLD amongst special groups like in those with unexplained rise in transaminases, diabetes mellitus and cryptogenic cirrhosis, studies on pathogenesis including insulin resistance, iron abnormalities, and studies available for the treatment of such patients have been reviewed. In addition some of the differences between Indian patients and those from the West have been highlighted. Available literature show that majority of Indian patients with NAFLD have overweight or obesity as per Asian Pacific criteria even though they do not have the kind of morbid obesity as seen in patients from the West. Other differences between Indian patients and those from the West include less of metabolic syndrome including its components like diabetes mellitus and hypertension, less of iron abnormalities and HFE gene mutations and mild histological disease at presentation in Indian patients. More data is required to substantiate these findings and to prove if NAFLD patients in India are different at presentation.