Comparison of Computed Tomography-based Abdominal Adiposity Indexes as Predictors of Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Among Middle-aged Korean Men and Women

Abstract

We compared the associations of 3 computed tomography (CT)-based abdominal adiposity indexes with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) among middle-aged Korean men and women. Methods: The participants were 1366 men and 2480 women community-dwellers aged 30-64 years. Three abdominal adiposity indexes-visceral fat area (VFA), subcutaneous fat area (SFA), and visceral-to-subcutaneous fat ratio (VSR)-were calculated from abdominal CT scans. NAFLD was determined by calculating the Liver Fat Score from comorbidities and blood tests. An NAFLD prediction model that included waist circumference (WC) as a measure of abdominal adiposity was designated as the base model, to which VFA, SFA, and VSR were added in turn. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), integrated discrimination improvement (IDI), and net reclassification improvement (NRI) were calculated to quantify the additional predictive value of VFA, SFA, and VSR relative to WC. Results: VFA and VSR were positively associated with NAFLD in both genders. SFA was not significantly associated with NAFLD in men, but it was negatively associated in women. When VFA, SFA, and VSR were added to the WC-based NAFLD prediction model, the AUC improved by 0.013 (p<0.001), 0.001 (p =0.434), and 0.009 (p =0.007) in men and by 0.044 (p<0.001), 0.017 (p<0.001), and 0.046 (p<0.001) in women, respectively. The IDI and NRI were increased the most by VFA in men and VSR in women. Conclusions: Using CT-based abdominal adiposity indexes in addition to WC may improve the detection of NAFLD. The best predictive indicators were VFA in men and VSR in women.

Correlation between CT Abdominal Anthropometric Measurements and Liver Density in Individuals with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

“…We carried out this study to better understand the relationship between WC, subcutaneous fat depth, and the diagnosis of non-alcoholic liver disease. As expected, NAFLD was strongly correlated with WC and subcutaneous fat depth measurements, which is in line with previous research findings [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ], suggesting that as liver attenuation values decrease, anthropometric values assessing obesity increase. In addition, we discovered a correlation between triglyceride and total cholesterol levels and liver attenuation values, indicating that the higher the lipid levels, the more intense the CT-determined steatosis.…”

Relationship between Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Visceral Fat Measured by Imaging-Based Body Composition Analysis: A Systematic Review

“…The search from PubMed Central and ScienceDirect initially yielded 97,511 results altogether. After excluding duplicates and identifying records to be screened, 16,000 journals were screened by their title and abstracts for keywords before 50 full-text articles were assessed for 20 studies [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47] eventually being accounted in this review.…”

Stratifying the risk of ovarian cancer incidence by histologic subtypes in the Korean Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Study (Ko‐EVE)

“…6,[30][31][32] In this study, alcohol consumption showed an increased risk for developing overall EOC and MUC. Even though exercise might reduce adipose tissue, estrogen levels, and chronic inflammation 33,34 results of previous studies on physical activity and exercise have not been consistent. 6 According to a previous consortium study that included 8309 patients and 12,612 controls, physical inactivity was observed to have a significant risk for the overall incidence of EOC, along with the incidence of HGS, MUC, END, and CLC subtypes.…”