title: Reproducibility of glucose, fatty acid and VLDL kinetics and multi-organ insulin sensitivity in obese subjects with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with abnormalities in basal glucose and free fatty acid (FFA) metabolism, multi-organ insulin resistance and alterations in lipoprotein kinetics. These metabolic outcomes can be evaluated in vivo by using stable isotopically labeled tracer methods. An understanding of the reproducibility of these measures is necessary to ensure adequate statistical power in studies designed to evaluate metabolic function in subjects with NAFLD.
  
  
  METHODS
  We determined the degree of intra-individual variability of skeletal muscle, adipose tissue, and hepatic insulin sensitivity and basal plasma glucose, FFA, and very-low-density lipoprotein triglyceride and apolipoprotein B-100 (apoB-100) kinetics in eight obese subjects with NAFLD (age: 44 ± 3 years; body mass index: 38.2 ± 1.7 kg m(-2); intrahepatic triglyceride content: 24.5 ± 3.9%), by using the hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp technique and stable isotope-labeled tracer methods and mathematical modeling on two separate occasions ∼2 months apart.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The intra-individual variability (coefficient of variation) ranged from 6% for basal glucose production to 21% for insulin-stimulated glucose disposal (percentage increase from basal). We estimated that a 25% difference in any outcome measure can be detected with a sample size of ≤ 8 subjects for paired studies and ≤ 15 subjects per group for unpaired studies, assuming an α value of 0.05 and a β value of 0.20 (that is, 80% power).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results demonstrate that only a small number of subjects are needed to detect clinically relevant effects in insulin sensitivity and hepatic lipoprotein metabolism in obese subjects with NAFLD, and will be useful to determine appropriate sample size for future metabolic studies.
authors.affiliation: Center for Human Nutrition, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63110, USA.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Magkos
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fabbrini
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Korenblat
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Okunade
authors.forename: B W
authors.initials: BW
authors.lastname: Patterson
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Klein
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000378:metabolism*; D000328:Adult; D005230:Fatty Acids, Nonesterified / Q000378:metabolism*; D005234:Fatty Liver / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007333:Insulin Resistance; D008079:Lipoproteins, VLDL / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000378:metabolism; D065626:Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D005230:Fatty Acids, Nonesterified; D008079:Lipoproteins, VLDL; D014280:Triglycerides; D005947:Glucose