Prognostic value of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in the elderly patients.

BACKGROUND: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the liver manifestation of metabolic syndrome, a risk factor for mortality and cardiovascular morbidity, but we ignore the role of steatosis per se in survival, and there is very little information about this condition in the geriatric patient. AIMS: With the present study, we investigated the independent prognostic value of NAFLD on overall mortality in the elderly. METHODS: Within the Pianoro Project, involving people ≥ 65 years, anamnestic, clinical and laboratoristic data related to NAFLD, insulin resistance, diabetes/hyperglycemia, hypertension, obesity and dyslipidemia were collected in 804 subjects (403 male, 401 female). These subjects were followed up for mortality for a median time of 12.6 years. A multivariate analysis was performed to evaluate the prognostic value of the covariates. RESULTS: At Kaplan-Meier estimator the presence of NAFLD seems to be associated to a lower mortality, and survival tends to increase with the increasing of steatosis grade. Cox's analysis found that survival is increased for subjects having hypercholesterolemia (RR = 0.565), NAFLD (RR = 0.777), hypertension (RR = 0.711) and in female (RR = 0.741), while it is decreased for the older subjects (RR = 3.046), in patients with hypertriglyceridemia (RR = 1.699) and for diabetics (RR = 1.797). The variables BMI and HDL-cholesterol have no role. CONCLUSION: The data obtained in our study show that NAFLD is not associated to overall mortality in the elderly population.

Gastrointestinal Ultrasound in Emergency Setting.

Acute bowel diseases are responsible for more than one third of subjects who were referred to the emergency department for acute abdominal pain and gastrointestinal evaluation. Gastrointestinal ultrasound (GIUS) is often employed as the first imaging method, with a good diagnostic accuracy in the setting of acute abdomen, and it can be an optimal diagnostic strategy in young females due to the radiation exposure related to X-ray and computed tomography methods. The physician can examine the gastrointestinal system in the area with the greatest tenderness by ultrasound, thus obtaining more information and data on the pathology than the standard physical examination. In this comprehensive review, we have reported the most relevant indications and advantages to using ultrasound in the investigation of abdominal acute pain.