This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

High liver fat is associated with increased risk of metabolic syndrome

High liver fat content was found to be associated with metabolic syndrome in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, independent of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, according to study data published in Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Researchers, including Rohit Loomba, MD, MHSc, of the division of gastroenterology and epidemiology, University of California, San Diego, conducted a case-control study at the NAFLD Translational Research Unit at the University of California San Diego with 146 patients with NAFLD and 50 without NAFLD. They used the magnetic resonance imaging-estimated proton density fat fraction (MRI-PDFF), a novel-based imaging tool, to measure liver fat in all the patients.

Rohit Loomba

The patients with NAFLD were then divided into groups based on if they were above or below the median MRI-PDFF value of 15.4%. Patients with NAFLD had a higher MRI-PDFF value compared with the control group, who had less than 5%.

According to the research, the patients with NAFLD with MRI-PDFF values above the median value were more likely to have abdominal obesity compared with controls and NAFLD patients with MRI-PDFF values below the median (P < .0001). In addition, the NAFLD patients with MRI-PDFF value above the median value had higher levels of high-density cholesterol (P < .0001), higher levels of triglycerides (P < .0001) and higher fasting glucose levels (P < .001) compared with the other groups.

Patients with NAFLD with MRI-PDFF values above the median were more likely to have metabolic syndrome compared with NAFLD patients with MRI-PDFF values below the median, (60.3% vs 44.4%; P < .04). This was independent of biopsy-proven nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, according to the researchers. Also, both groups of NAFLD patients had higher rates of metabolic syndrome compared with the controls, whereas only 6% had metabolic syndrome (P < .0001).

“Our data show that the quantity of liver fat is associated with an increased metabolic risk independent of NASH. However, further research is needed to evaluate the prognostic utility of measuring liver fat and its direct association with incident cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular mortality. Moreover, a logical next step also would be to study whether a reduction in liver fat quantity can decrease metabolic risk in NAFLD.” the researchers wrote. The researchers concluded: “There appears to be an association between the quantity of liver fat and the risk for cardiovascular disease in patients with NAFLD.” – by Melinda Stevens

Disclosures: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.