Visceral and subcutaneous fat, muscle mass, and liver volume as noninvasive predictors of the progress of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

Abstract

Background

The term “non-alcoholic fatty liver disease” (NAFLD) refers to a range of disorders caused by lipid accumulation in the liver. High abdominal fat levels can cause adipocytes to become more lipolytic, releasing free fatty acids into the portal venous system. In this study, we aimed to use the analysis of visceral fat, subcutaneous fat, muscle mass, and liver volume to evaluate the severity of fatty liver in NAFLD.

Results

This study enrolled 130 patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. The mean age of studied patients was 51.38 ± 11.11 years, ranging between 25 and 65 years. Of the studied patients, 60 (46.2%) patients were males and 70 (53.8%) were females. The mean body mass index was 41.23 ± 7.83 (kg/m²). Based on the radiological assessment of those patients, patients with grade III fatty liver had significantly higher total fat volume, visceral fat volume, subcutaneous fat volume, fat rate in the body, visceral fat volume rate, psoas muscle volume, and psoas muscle ratio in comparison with those with grade I and grade II fatty liver. Liver enzymes significantly correlated with total fat volume, visceral fat volume rate, psoas muscle volume, psoas muscle ratio, and liver volume.

Conclusions

The degree of fatty liver severity among patients with NAFLD was positively correlated with the amount of subcutaneous, visceral fat, and muscle mass. Also, both liver transaminases had a significant positive correlation with the amount of total and visceral fat, psoas muscle mass, and liver volume.