Association Between Metabolic Abnormalities and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver in Obese Premenopausal Women

Abstract

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is frequently related to obesity and metabolic alterations. This study aimed to assess the relation between NAFLD and metabolic syndrome (MS) in obese premenopausal women and investigate the impact of NAFLD on occurrence of metabolic syndrome components. The study comprised 180 non-smoking premenopausal obese women. They were 90 with NAFLD and 90 with normal liver, aged 25 to 35 years. Abdominal ultrasonography was used to diagnose fatty liver disease. MS was diagnosed according to the Adult Treatment Panel III criteria. Metabolic syndrome was found in 22.2% and in 83.3% of the normal and fatty liver cases, respectively, with significant difference. Cases with NAFLD had significantly higher levels of triglyceride, glucose, ALT, cholesterol, HOMA-IR and waist circumference than those than those with the normal fatty liver. In fatty liver group, the majority of cases had central obesity (88.8%), followed by hypertriglyceridemia (85.5%), hyperinsulinemia (84.4 %), hyperglycemia (83.3%) and hypertension (81.1%). All metabolic syndrome components were significantly elevated in the cases with fatty liver than those with in normal liver cases. The strongest associations of an individual component of meta­bolic syndrome with NAFLD were hypertriglyceridemia and low HDL-cholesterol. A higher percentage of NAFLD was observed in cases with three components followed by four components of the metabolic syndrome. NAFLD is correlated positively with metabolic risk components. It was associated with higher ratios of metabolic components; hypertriglyceridemia and low HDL-cholesterol level had the strongest positive association. This suggests the importance of these components in screening of NAFLD among obese premenopausal women.