Reply

We express our gratitude to Xu et  al for providing insightful perspectives on the intricate interplay among steatotic liver disease (SLD), systemic metabolic dysfunctions, and chronic hepatitis B (CHB). We agree with Xu et al about the positive association between the burden of metabolic dysfunctions and the severity of hepatic s teatosis in patients with CHB. However, although we found that cumulative metabolic dysfunctions additively increased the hepatitis B surface antigen seroclearance rate among SLD patients,1 probably mediated by the severity of steatosis, we also found that systemic metabolic dysfunctions, especially diabetes mellitus, cumulatively increased the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma irrespective of hepatic steatosis in our earlier study enrolling 10,546 treatment-naïve patients with CHB.
Source: Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology - Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Tags: Letters to the Editor Source Type: research