Pemafibrate ameliorates liver dysfunction and fatty liver in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease with hypertriglyceridemia: A retrospective study with the outcome after a mid-term follow-up

Abstract

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a chronic liver disease related to metabolic syndrome. No standard pharmacological treatment has yet been established. We retrospectively evaluated the efficacy of pemafibrate in 16 NAFLD patients (11 men and 5 women; median age, 59 years; range, 27–81 years) who had taken pemafibrate for at least one year. They were all diagnosed with fatty liver according to imaging and clinical criteria. They were administered pemafibrate from October 2018 to October 2021 (median, 94 weeks; range, 56–157 weeks). Serum triglyceride was significantly decreased by −41.9% (342.3 ± 54.0 to 198.9 ± 20.4 mg/dL, p < 0.001). Aspartate amino-transferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase, and gamma-glutamyl transferase levels significantly decreased by −42.1% (49.6 ± 7.0 to 28.7 ± 3.4 U/L, p < 0.001), −57.1% (65.1 ± 10.8 to 27.9 ± 3.7 U/L, p < 0.001), and −43.2% (68.9 ± 10.9 to 39.1 ± 5.3 U/L, p < 0.05), respectively. The AST to platelet ratio (APRI) (0.8 ± 0.1 to 0.4 ± 0.1, p < 0.001) and fibrosis based on four factors (FIB-4) index (1.8 ± 0.3 to 1.4 ± 0.2, p < 0.05) also significantly decreased. Liver attenuation (39.1 ± 1.2 to 57.8 ± 2.7 HU, p = 0.028) and liver/spleen ratio (0.76 ± 0.04 to 1.18 ± 0.02, p = 0.012) significantly improved in three patients, as assessed by computed tomography. In conclusion, pemafibrate significantly improves serum triglyceride levels, liver function, FIB-4 index, APRI, and fatty liver in NAFLD patients with hypertriglyceridemia.