Ultrasound Grade of Liver Steatosis Is Independently Associated with the Risk of Metabolic Syndrome

The aim of the study was to explore (a) prevalence and grade of nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL) among outpatients referred for abdominal ultrasound (US) examination and (b) relationship between the presence and severity of liver steatosis and metabolic syndrome (MS). This was a retrospective analysis of patients without history of liver disease examined by abdominal US in the University hospital setting. US was used to detect and semiquantitatively grade (0-3) liver steatosis. Data on patients' age, gender, body mass index (BMI), impaired glucose metabolism (IGM), atherogenic dyslipidaemia (AD), raised blood pressure (RBP), transaminases, and platelet counts were obtained from medical records. MS was defined as having at least 3 of the following components: obesity, IGM, AD, and RBP. Of the 631 patients (median age 60 years, median BMI 27.4 kg/m2, and 57.4% females) 71.5% were overweight and 48.5% had NAFL. In the subgroup of 159 patients with available data on the components of MS, patients with higher US grade of steatosis had significantly higher BMI and increased prevalence of obesity, IGM, AD, RBP, and accordingly more frequently had MS, whereas they did not differ in terms of age and gender. NAFL was independently associated with the risk of having MS in a multivariate model adjusted for age, gender, BMI, and IGM. The grade of liver steatosis did not correlate with the presence of liver fibrosis. We demonstrated worrisome prevalence of obesity and NAFL in the outpatient population from our geographic region. NAFL is independently associated with the risk of having MS implying worse prognosis.