Diagnostic value of alcoholic liver disease (ALD)/nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) index combined with γ-glutamyl transferase in differentiating ALD and NAFLD

BACKGROUND/AIMS: This study aimed to verify the reliability of the alcoholic liver disease (ALD)/nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) index (ANI) for distinguishing ALD in patients with hepatic steatosis from NAFLD, and to investigate whether ANI combined with γ-glutamyl transferase (GGT) would enhance the accuracy of diagnosis in China. METHODS: A hundred thirty-nine cases of fatty liver disease (FLD) were divided into two groups of ALD and NAFLD. The ANI was calculated with an online calculator. All indicators and ANI values were analyzed using statistical methods. RESULTS: ANI was significantly higher in patients with ALD than in those with NAFLD (7.11 ± 5.77 vs. –3.09 ± 3.89, p < 0.001). With a cut-off value of –0.22, the sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) of diagnosed ALD cases was 87.1%, 92.5%, and 0.934 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.879 to 0.969), respectively. The corresponding values for aspartate aminotransferase (AST)/alanine transaminase (ALT), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), and GGT were 75.29%, 72.94%, and 0.826 (95% CI, 0.752 to 0.885); 94.34%, 83.02%, and 0.814 (95% CI, 0.739 to 0.875) and 80.23%, 79.25%, and 0.815 (95% CI, 0.740 to 0.876), respectively. ANI AUROC was significantly higher than the AST/ALT, MCV, or GGT AUROCs (all p < 0.001), moreover, ANI showed better diagnostic performance. The combination of ANI and GGT showed a better AUROC than ANI alone (0.976 vs. 0.934, p = 0.016). The difference in AUROCs between AST/ALT, MCV, and GGT was not statistically significant (all p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: ANI can help distinguish ALD from NAFLD with high accuracy; when ANI was combined with GGT, its effectiveness improved further.