medwireNews: Visceral adipose tissue is a strong indicator of the presence of non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) in people with type 1 diabetes, but fat in other areas is not. This is shown by the results of the FinnDiane study.
In addition, the researchers found that waist to hip ratio (WHR) “is a simple and inexpensive surrogate marker of visceral adipose tissue, is strongly associated with NAFL, and can be used as a screening tool for NAFL in this population”.
The standard WHR cutoff of 0.5 was optimal for predicting NAFL risk with a sensitivity of 86% and a specificity of 55%. In contrast, standard BMI limit values were poor predictors, with the optimum being 26.6 kg / m2, which was 79% sensitive and 57% specific.
As reported in Diabetes Care, the team examined 121 people with a mean age of 38.5 years who had type 1 diabetes for a mean duration of 21.2 years.
The prevalence of NAFL was 11.6% and that of visceral obesity was 50.4%, defined as a WHR of 0.5 or greater. Every 1% increase in visceral adipose tissue was associated with a significant 4.6-fold increase in the likelihood of NAFL, and this association remained significant after considering age, gender, duration of diabetes, and levels of glycated hemoglobin and triglycerides.
In contrast, neither total body fat nor appendix or gynoid fat were associated with NAFL, which Per-Henrik Groop (University of Helsinki, Finland) and co-researchers call “reflective”[s] the different metabolic functions of the adipocytes in different adipose tissue compartments. “
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Diabetes Care 2021; doi: 10.2337 / dc20-3175
