Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is closely associated with metabolic disorders, even in nonobese, nondiabetic subjects. Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease can be considered an early predictor of metabolic disorders, particularly in the normal-weight population.

BackgroundThe triglyceride glucose (TyG) index has been suggested as a simple surrogate marker of insulin resistance. However, there are limited data regarding the association between the TyG index and arterial stiffness in adults. Therefore, we evaluated the relationship between the TyG index and arterial stiffness as measured based on brachial ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) in Korean adults.MethodsA total of 3587 subjects were enrolled in this study. Anthropometric and cardiovascular risk factors were measured. The TyG index was calculated as ln[fasting triglycerides(mg/dl) × fasting glucose(mg/dl)/2], and the insulin resistance index of homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR) was estimated. Arterial stiffness was determined by measuring baPWV.ResultsThe subjects were stratified into four groups based on the TyG index. There were significant differences in cardiovascular parameters among the groups; the mean baPWV increased significantly with increasing TyG index. According to the logistic regression analysis after adjusting for multiple risk factors, the odds ratio (95% CI) for increased baPWV (> 75th percentile) for the highest and lowest quartiles of the TyG index was 2.92 (1.92–4.44) in men and 1.84 (1.15–2.96) in women, and the odds ratio for increased baPWV for the highest and lowest quartiles of the HOMA-IR was 1.80 (1.17–2.78) in men and 1.46 (1.06–2.47) in women, respectively.ConclusionThe TyG index is more independently associated with increased arterial stiffness than HOMA-IR in Korean adults.

To investigate the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index association with coronary artery calcification (CAC) progression in adult Koreans. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Various cardiovascular risk factors and anthropometric profiles were assessed in 1,175 subjects who previously had a CAC evaluation at least twice by multidetector computed tomography in a health care center. The TyG index was determined using ln(fasting triglycerides [mg/dL] 3 fasting glucose [mg/dL]/2). The CAC progression was defined as either incident CAC in a CAC-free population at baseline or an increase of ‡2.5 units between the square roots of the baseline and follow-up coronary artery calcium scores (CACSs) of subjects with detectable CAC at baseline. RESULTS CAC progression was seen in 312 subjects (27%) during 4.2 years follow-up. On the basis of the TyG index, subjects were stratified into three groups. Follow-up CACS and incidence of CAC progression were markedly elevated with rising TyG index tertile. Logistic regression analysis adjusted for various risk factors revealed an odds ratio for CAC progression of 1.82 (95% CI 1.20-2.77; P £ 0.01) when the highest and lowest TyG index tertiles were compared. CONCLUSIONS The TyG index is an independent predictor of CAC progression. Understanding the progression of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is important because the disease can lead to severe morbidity and mortality. An important risk factor for CVD is coronary artery calcification (CAC), and cardiovascular risk is commonly assessed by coronary artery calcium score (CACS), as determined by computed tomography (CT) (1-4). Insulin resistance (IR) is one of the major factors that leads to CVD, and several earlier studies have shown a relationship between IR and CAC (5,6). A reliable surrogate marker of IR was recently suggested to be the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index, which is calculated using fasting triglyceride (TG) and fasting glucose measurements (7-9). Several previous studies indicated that the TyG index is associated with CAC and CVD (10-14); however, the results were inconsistent. In addition, although CAC progression is a powerful predictor of mortality compared with baseline CACS and traditional cardiovascular risk factors (15), no previous study has investigated the relationship between TyG index and CAC progression in adults. Therefore, we

BackgroundThe triglyceride glucose (TyG) index has been considered a simple surrogate marker of insulin resistance. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between the TyG index and coronary artery calcification (CAC). Thus, we investigated the relationship between the TyG index and CAC in healthy Korean adults.MethodsIn total, 4319 participants who underwent cardiac computed tomography (CT) in a health promotion center were enrolled. Anthropometric profiles and multiple cardiovascular risk factors were measured. The TyG index was calculated as ln [fasting triglycerides (mg/dL) × fasting glucose (mg/dL)/2], and the insulin resistance index of homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR) was estimated. The CAC was measured using multidetector CT, and CAC presence was defined as an Agatston score of >0.ResultsAll subjects were stratified into four groups based on their TyG indices. Significant differences were observed in cardiovascular parameters among the groups, and the prevalence of CAC significantly increased with increasing TyG index. In the logistic regression analysis after adjustment for multiple risk factors, the odds ratio for the prevalence of CAC, when comparing the highest and lowest quartiles of the TyG index was 1.95 (95% CI 1.23–3.11; P for trend = 0.01); the odds ratio for the prevalence of CAC, when comparing the highest and lowest quartiles of HOMA-IR was 1.64 (95% CI 1.12–2.40; P for trend = 0.04). In the receiver operating characteristics analysis, the TyG index was superior to HOMA-IR in predicting CAC.ConclusionThe TyG index is more independently associated with the presence of coronary artery atherosclerosis than is HOMA-IR in healthy Korean adults.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12933-017-0589-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.