title: Is non-alcoholic fatty liver disease less frequent among women with Prader-Willi syndrome?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Patients with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) have been hypothesized to be at lower risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) because of higher insulin sensitivity. However, PWS patients have a peculiar body composition, i.e. higher fat mass and lower fat-free mass, which may confound such associations. We evaluated whether NAFLD is less frequent in PWS than in non-PWS women matched on percent body fat (PBF).
  
  
  METHODS
  PBF was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Liver fat was assessed by ultrasonography. Insulin sensitivity and beta-cell function were evaluated by oral glucose tolerance testing. Coarsened exact matching (CEM) was used to match PWS and non-PWS women on PBF. General and generalized linear models taking CEM into account were used to perform comparisons between PWS and non-PWS women.
  
  
  RESULTS
  20 women with PWS were matched to 27 women without PWS on the basis of PBF (mean 53 vs. 54%, p = 0.6). Insulin sensitivity and beta-cell function were similar in the two groups. However, the prevalence of NAFLD was 25% in PWS versus 59% in non-PWS women (p = 0.04).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  NAFLD is less frequent in PWS than in non-PWS women but this finding is not associated with higher insulin sensitivity.
authors.affiliation: Liver Research Center, Basovizza, Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bedogni
authors.forename: Graziano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Grugni
authors.forename: Valerio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Nobili
authors.forename: Fiorenza
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Agosti
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saezza
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sartorio
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue; D000328:Adult; D001786:Blood Glucose; D001823:Body Composition; D015992:Body Mass Index; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005234:Fatty Liver / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D005951:Glucose Tolerance Test; D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000378:metabolism; D007333:Insulin Resistance; D050417:Insulin-Secreting Cells; D065626:Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease; D011218:Prader-Willi Syndrome; D015995:Prevalence; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D001786:Blood Glucose; D007328:Insulin