High circulating fibroblast growth factor-21 levels as a screening marker in fatty pancreas patients

BACKGROUND: The study aimed to detect the serum levels of fibroblast growth factor-21 (FGF-21) in fatty pancreas (FP) patients and to investigate their potential clinical value. METHODS: We screened patients with FP using transabdominal ultrasound. The anthropometric, biochemical and serum levels of FGF-21 were compared between the FP group and the normal control (NC) group. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the predictive value of serum FGF-21 for FP patients. RESULTS: Compared with the NC group, body mass index, fasting blood glucose levels, uric acid levels and cholesterol levels of the FP group were significantly higher, while the high-density lipoprotein level was lower. In addition, levels of serum FGF-21, resistin, leptin and tumor necrosis factor-α were significantly higher than those in the NC group, while the serum adiponectin level was lower. Pearson analysis showed serum FGF-21 levels in FP patients were negatively correlated with leptin. The ROC curve showed the best critical value of the serum FGF-21 level in FP patients was 171 pg/mL (AUC 0.744, P = 0.002, 95% confidence intervals 0.636–0.852). CONCLUSION: Serum FGF-21 was closely related to fatty pancreas. Detecting serum FGF-21 levels may help identify the population susceptible to FP.