Clinical Differences and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease-Related Factors of Lean and Non-Lean Patients with Metabolic Syndrome

• Main Authors: Punyisa Boonchai, Chayanis Kositamongkol, Suchanart Jitrukthai, Sukumal Phothirat, Euarat Mepramoon, Pongpol Nimitpunya, Weerachai Srivanichakorn, Thanet Chaisathaphol, Chaiwat Washirasaksiri, Chonticha Auesomwang, Tullaya Sitasuwan, Rungsima Tinmanee, Naruemit Sayabovorn, Phunchai Charatcharoenwitthaya, Pochamana Phisalprapa
• Other Authors: Siriraj Hospital
• Format: Article
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Medicine
• Online Access: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/74572
• Institution: Mahidol University

This study investigated differences in the clinical data and prevalence of lean and non-lean patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and metabolic syndrome (MetS). Data on patients with MetS who had results of ultrasonography or transient elastography were collected from a Thai university hospital database. Patients with exclusion criteria for NAFLD diagnosis were excluded. Patients’ clinical characteristic and the performances of three non-invasive scoring systems (fatty liver index [FLI], fibrosis-4 [FIB-4] index, and NAFLD fibrosis score [NFS]) were evalu-ated. The 743 subjects were classified into two groups: lean MetS (131 patients) and non-lean MetS (612 patients). The NAFLD prevalence in the non-lean group (62.6%) was higher than that in the lean group (31.3%). The age-adjusted odds ratio was 3.43. Advanced fibrosis was detected in 7.6% of lean patients and 10.8% of non-lean patients. FLI was not sensitive enough to detect NAFLD in the lean group at a high cutoff, but it performed acceptably at a low cutoff. FIB-4 performed better than NFS in determining advanced fibrosis. NAFLD was more common in non-lean than lean pa-tients. Lean patients with MetS had a relatively higher risk of NAFLD than the general population. FLI and FIB-4 index performed acceptably in both groups.