Retrospective evalution of clinical features and factors associated with non-alcoholic fatty pancreas disease (NAFPD)

Aim: In this study, it is aimed to determine retrospectively the clinical features of patients with non-alcoholic fatty pancreas disease (NAFPD) who have taken abdominal computed tomography (CT) for any reason at Karadeniz Technical University (KTU) Faculty of Medicine and to evaluate the factors associated with this condition. Material and Methods: In this study, 3054 patients who are diagnosed with pancreatic fat after abdominal CT performed for any reason at KTU Faculty of Medicine Farabi Hospital between 01.04.2004-30.09.2019 are determined, and 2887 patients who met the study criteria are included. Demographic data and laboratory findings of the patients (within 12 weeks before or 12 weeks after the radiological diagnosis) are evaluated retrospectively through the hospital database. Results: The study is conducted with a total of 2887 patients, 1254 (43.3%) female and 1633 (56.6%) male. The mean age is 67.03 ± 11.29 years, and 60.8% of the patients are 65 years old or older. Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in 24.4%, hypertension (HT) in 41.1% and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in 26.5% are present in the patients with pancreatic steatosis. Mean glucose 124.7 ± 59 mg/dL, mean HbA1c 7.14 ± 1.74 %, mean HOMA-IR 6.48 ± 6.02 mg/dL, mean total cholesterol 189.2 ± 49.3 mg/dL, mean triglyceride 149 .8 ± 82.4mg/dL, mean LDL 118 ± 41.5 mg/dL, mean HDL 43 ± 12.5 mg/dL, mean ALT 27.2 ± 56.1 U/L, mean AST 40.6 ± 205.9 U/L, mean GGT 62.5 ± 115.9 U/L and mean amylase 65.6 ± 85.2 U/L are found. Conclusion: Obesity is an important public health problem that has increasing frequency in all age groups and causes fat accumulation in many organs. NAFPD is a relatively new disease that is increasingly being diagnosed in clinical practice with the ascending rate in the obesity epidemic. The pathophysiology, clinical course and related factors of the disease have not been clearly clarified yet. In our study, it is found that NAFPD is more common in older age and male gender. It is observed that NAFPD is associated with impaired glucose metabolism, T2DM and NAFLD often accompanied it. Considering that our study is single-center and retrospective, it is concluded that multi-center prospective studies are needed to evaluate NAFPD and the clinical course of the disease.