Background: Obesity has a negative effect on health. By 2035, it is anticipated that over 51% of the population will be affected by obesity. Obesity is a leading cause of various gastrointestinal and hepatic diseases. Objectives: To evaluate the association of various grades of obesity with endoscopic changes in the gastro-colonic mucosa, hepatic fibrocirrhotic changes, and blood chemistry abnormalities. Methods: A case-control study included 72 subjects with different grades of body mass index (BMI) recruited from an outpatient clinic. Subjects were categorized into obese (BMI>30) (n=36) and non-obese (BMI<30) (n=36). Non-obese subjects were categorized into normal BMI (18-24.9kg/m2) (group I) and overweight (BMI 25-29.9kg/m2) (group II). Obese subjects were categorized into obese (BMI 30-34.9kg/m2) (group III) and morbidly obese (BMI ≥ 35kg/m2) (group IV). Blood chemistry was assessed. Ultrasonography and Fibroscan were done for fibrocirrhotic liver changes. Gastro-colonic endoscopic screening was performed to detect GIT mucosal changes. Results: Obese subjects with BMI ≥30kg/m2 had fibrocirrhotic changes in liver parenchyma and higher values of routine blood tests (p-value < 0.05). Absence of hepatic fibro-cirrhotic changes (F0) was seen more often in group I (88.2%) and group II (63.2%) in comparison to other groups (p value <0.0001). Moderate hepatic fibro-cirrhosis (F7.1 to F10) was recognized in group III (40%) compared to the rest of the study populations. Gastro-colonic endoscopic screening did not reveal any characteristic macroscopic lesion that indicates a specific GIT disease. Conclusion: Obesity is associated with hepatic fibrocirrhotic changes, high baseline of routine blood test results and undetectable gastro-colonic macroscopic mucosal lesions.
El-Dessouky et al. (Sat,) studied this question.