Diabetes and other metabolic abnormalities including high triglycerides (TG) are commonly seen comorbid conditions in patients having nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). There is no approved pharmacotherapy for NAFLD and lifestyle therapy plays a major role. Saroglitazar, the world’s first approved dual PPAR α/γ agonist, is approved in India for the treatment of diabetic dyslipidemia. The objective of this case series analysis was to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of saroglitazar 4mg once daily in reducing liver stiffness in patients having diabetic dyslipidemia associated NAFLD
In this retrospective case series analysis, we identified 10 patients with diabetic dyslipidemia (type 2 diabetes and triglycerides >200 mg/dL at baseline) and NAFLD who were treated with saroglitazar 4mg once daily and the follow-up data were available for 9 months after saroglitazar treatment. At baseline, all patients were on stable antidiabetic and statin therapy. Liver stiffness was measured by using 2D shear wave elastography at baseline and at 9 months follow-up.
We analysed a total of 10 patients (male: female 7:3) with mean baseline HbA1c and TG values were 7.8% and 298.2 mg/dL respectively. The mean baseline SWV value 1.837±0.0691 m/s was reduced significantly to 1.645±0.0844 m/s at 9 month follow-up after saroglitazar treatment. At 9 month follow-up after saroglitazar, HbA1c level was significantly reduced from 7.8±0.343% to 6.9±0.33% (P<0.0001). Serum TG was also significantly reduced from 298.2±35.75 mg/dL to 202.4±13.19 mg/dL (P<0.0001) at 9 month follow-up.
In this study saroglitazar significantly improved liver stiffness along with reduction in liver enzymes and TG values.