title: Visceral fat predominance is associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in Japanese women with metabolic syndrome.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Metabolic syndrome (MS) is likely to be associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The prevalence of NAFLD in visceral fat type MS (V-type MS) is known to be higher than in subcutaneous fat type MS (S-type MS) in men with MS, and a larger subcutaneous fat area is reported to be not associated with NAFLD in women. We elucidated differences between V-type S-type MS in Japanese women with MS.
  
  
  METHODS
  The subjects were 276 women with MS who underwent a medical checkup including abdominal ultrasonography. We examined for the prevalence of fatty liver and investigated biochemical parameters, and we also made a distinction between V-type and S-type MS.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Triglyceride, uric acid, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), γ-glutamyltransferase, the frequency of fatty liver and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) were significantly higher in V-type MS than in S-type MS. On logistic regression analysis with NAFLD (in our study, fatty liver with ALT ≥31 IU/L was defined as NAFLD) as a dependent variable, body mass index, dyslipidemia, AST and V-type MS were significant predictors of an increased prevalence of NAFLD (odds ratios [OR] = 18.85, 3.119, 59.77 and 3.205; 95% confidence intervals [CI] = 3.585-99.15, 1.195-8.142, 18.03-198.2 and 1.198-8.573; P < 0.001, <0.05, <0.001 and <0.05, respectively).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Women with V-type MS are more likely to have fatty liver, IGT and liver dysfunction than those with S-type MS. V-type MS is one of the significant predictors for NAFLD in Japanese women with MS.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, Kagawa Prefectural Cancer Detection Center, Takamatsu, Japan.
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sogabe
authors.forename: Toshiya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Okahisa
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tsujigami
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fukuno
authors.forename: Shingo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hibino
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yamanoi
keywords: metabolic syndrome; non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; subcutaneous fat type metabolic syndrome; ultrasonography; visceral fat type metabolic syndrome; women