Metabolic significance of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in non-obese adults

Lee, Kwang Eun; Kim, Yoo Mee; Kang, Eun Seok; Kim, Hae Jin; Chung, Hae Won; Lee, Si Hoon; Kim, Hyeung Jin; Kim, Dae Jung; Kim, Soo Kyung; Ahn, Chul Woo; Cha, Bong Soo; Lim, Sung Kil; Lee, Hyun Chul; Huh, Kap Bum

Abstract

BACKGROUND: It is well known that non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is associated with metabolic syndrome such as obesity, type II diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is frequently found in non-obese adults, but the meaning of it is unknown. So we studied the association of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in non-obese adults and metabolic abnormalities.
METHODS
We examined 779 Korean adults above 30 years old (274 men, 505 women) participating in medical check-up in Health Promotion Center. Hepatitis B and C serologies were negative, and average weekly alcohol intake was RESULTS
370 subjects had non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (47.3%). The frequency in men was higher than that in women (57.3 vs 42.2%, p<0.05). The frequency in non-obese (BMI<25 kg/m2, n=431) group was lower than that in obese (BMI>or=25 kg/m2, n=348) group (65.5 vs 32.3%, p<0.05). Compared with obese group, waist circumference, waist hip ratio, body fat, impaired fasting serum glucose, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol, total cholesterol to HDL-cholesterol ratio, fasting insulin, proinsulin, HOMA-IR and HOMA-beta were significantly different in non-obese, non-alcoholic fatty liver group. After multiple regression analysis, waist circumference was associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in non-obese individuals. Odd ratios of insulin resistance in non-obese, non-alcoholic fatty liver group were 5.8 (CI: 3.1~10.9).
CONCLUSION
The frequency of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was very high in non-obese adults and well associated with central obesity and insulin resistance.