Adiponectin SNPs were found to be associated with the progression of liver fibrosis and insulin resistance, suggesting that adiponectin SNPs might play roles in the occurrence and progression of NAFLD.

Lack of exercise and excessive food intake are known to be the important causes of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). To elucidate the relationship between lifestyle and NASH, we surveyed exercise and dietary habits, comparing them among 171 biopsy-proven NASH patients, 29 nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) patients and 49 normal subjects. Dietary habits including the duration of dinner time, amount of rice at dinner, and weekly frequencies of meat, fries, Chinese noodles, sweets, and instant food consumption were significantly different in male NASH patients compared to normal male subjects. In women, differences were seen in the amount of rice at dinner, frequency of eating out, and proclivity for sweets. In male NASH patients, the frequency of physical exercise was significantly lower. The lifestyle tendencies of NASH were almost similar to those of NAFL. In the comparison between obese NASH and non-obese NASH, no clear lifestyle differences were found. In conclusion, the most striking result of this survey was that the lifestyle of males contributed significantly to the development of NASH. These results point to treatment of NASH in males. In female NASH patients, lifestyle differences were minimal, and the effects of other factors such as genetic background will need to be investigated.

Serum OCT levels and the ratios of OCT : ALT and OCT : AST increase in parallel with the progression of NASH. It was suggested that OCT is a useful marker in the progression of NASH.

A 51-year-old man visited our hospital with a main complaint of precordial pain, difficulty swallowing, and pyrexia. The patient was diagnosed with esophageal carcinosarcoma, based on the characteristic morphology noted on upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and histology tests, and he underwent surgical treatment. His preoperative blood granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels were high, and the surgical specimens were positive in both immunohistochemical tests; therefore, he was diagnosed with a G-CSF- and IL-6-producing tumor. When pyrexia is seen as a paraneoplastic symptom, it is important to consider and investigate the possibility of a cytokine-producing tumor.

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