Vitamin E reduces liver stiffness in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Table 1 Clinical characteristics and laboratory values of the patients at baseline

	All patients	PNPLA3 genotype		P value
		CC/CG	GG	PNPLA3 CC/CG vs GG
No. of subjects	38	19	19
Sex (male/female)	10/28	6/13	4/15	0.461
Age (yr)	62.0 ± 11.6	58.4 ± 11.9	65.6 ± 10.1	0.061
Height (cm)	156.6 ± 9.9	158.7 ± 11.3	154.4 ± 7.6	0.226
Body weight (kg)	68.2 ± 14.9	69.7 ± 16.1	66.7 ± 13.5	0.685
Body mass index (kg/m2)	27.9 ± 4.7	27.7 ± 4.0	28.0 ± 5.3	0.988
Classification of NAFLD
Fatty liver confirmed by an imaging examination	23	13	10	0.347
NASH confirmed by a liver biopsy	9	5	4
Nonviral liver cirrhosis diagnosed clinically	5	1	4
Burn-out NASH confirmed by a liver biopsy	1	0	1
Child-Pugh grade of cirrhotic patients (A/B/C)	4/2/0	1/0/0	3/2/0	0.439
Concurrent diabetes mellitus (+/-)	15/23	5/14	10/9	0.097
Concurrent hepatocellular cancer (+/-)	0/38	0/19	0/19	-
Dosage of vitamin E (150 mg/300 mg/600 mg)	2/4/32	2/1/16	0/3/16	0.223
Concurrent medication
Pioglitazone	3	2	1	0.547
Metformin	2	2	0	0.146
Ursodeoxycholic acid	27	14	13	0.721
HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor	13	6	7	0.732
Ezetimibe	7	6	1	0.036a
Angiotensin receptor 2 antagonist	9	6	3	0.252
Serum biochemical tests
Platelet count (× 104/μL)	16.7 ± 7.5	19.3 ± 7.1	14.1 ± 6.9	0.046a
Prothrombin activity (%)	98.5 ± 18.7	104.2 ± 17.6	93.2 ± 18.2	0.061
Hemoglobin A1c (%)	6.38 ± 1.06	6.26 ± 0.97	6.49 ± 1.14	0.394
Total protein (g/dL)	7.42 ± 0.52	7.47 ± 0.49	7.36 ± 0.54	0.435
Serum albumin (g/dL)	4.27 ± 0.39	4.41 ± 0.36	4.14 ± 0.37	0.032a
Total bilirubin (mg/dL)	0.98 ± 0.50	0.84 ± 0.29	1.11 ± 0.61	0.172
AST (IU/L)	61.1 ± 29.9	58.2 ± 32.2	64.1 ± 27.2	0.191
ALT (IU/L)	68.5 ± 41.2	69.9 ± 36.0	67.1 ± 45.7	0.385
Alkaline phosphatase (IU/L)	312 ± 108	270 ± 85	355 ± 112	0.032a
γ-GTP (IU/L)	87.4 ± 70.0	72.6 ± 59.1	101.5 ± 76.4	0.142
Total cholesterol (mg/dL)	185 ± 37	194 ± 43	176 ± 28	0.172
Triglycerides (mg/dL)	151 ± 85	147 ± 99	156 ± 64	0.351
Cholinesterase (IU/L)	333 ± 124	353 ± 91	313 ± 147	0.172
Scoring systems of hepatic fibrosis
FIB-4 index	3.80 ± 2.78	2.61 ± 1.74	4.98 ± 3.10	0.006a
APRI	1.50 ± 0.94	1.17 ± 0.75	1.84 ± 0.98	0.014a
Velocity of shear wave (m/s)	2.20 ± 0.91	1.81 ± 0.76	2.56 ± 0.89	0.010a

Data are presented as number of patients or means ± SD. Statistical analysis was performed by χ² test or Mann-Whitney U test.

^aP < 0.05. PNPLA3: Patatin-like phospholipase domain containing 3; NAFLD: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; NASH: Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; APRI: Aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; AST: Aspartate aminotransferase; γ-GTP: γ-Glutamyltransferase.