J Hepatology: Non-alcoholic fatty liver of pregnancy is associated with adverse perinatal outcomes

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease (CLD) disease in the United States, with simple liver fatty degeneration and liver cell damage and fibrosis, all known as non-alcoholic fatty hepatitis (NASH).
the United States, women of childbearing age are also at high risk of NASH, and pregnancy itself is a period of relative insulin resistance and increased risk of obesity.
whether having NAFLD during pregnancy is a greater risk to the health of the mother or perinatal period.
, this study aims to explore this aspect.
researchers assessed time trends in NAFLD in pregnant women after 20 weeks of pregnancy in the U.S. health database and compared them with outcomes in other women with chronic liver disease (CLD) or non-CLD.
results include premature birth, postpartum bleeding, complications of hypertension (pre-eclampsia, eclampsia and/or hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and hyplate syndrome) and maternal or fetal deaths.
of the 18574,225 pregnant women, 5,640 had NAFLD, while 115,210 had other non-NAFLD chronic liver disease (CLD).
chance of being a pregnancy with NAFLD nearly tripled from 10.5 / 100,000 pregnancies in 2007 to 28.9 / 100,000 in 2015.
compared to other groups, patients with NAFLD during pregnancy were more likely to develop gestational diabetes (8% VS 23%), complications of hypertension (4% VS16%), and postpartum bleeding (5% VS 6%).
and premature birth (7% VS 9%), p≤0.01.
, NAFLD was associated with complications of hypertension, premature birth, postpartum haemorrhage and maternal mortality compared to non-CLD.
researchers concluded that the prevalence of NAFLD during pregnancy has nearly tripled in the past decade and has been associated with complications of high blood pressure, postpartum bleeding and premature birth.
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