Background:
The central obesity significantly contribute to occurrence of hepatic steatosis, but the relationship betweencontrolled attenuation parameter (CAP) value, which is noninvasive method of measuring hepatic steatosis, and visceral fat area (VFA) by computed tomography (CT) which represents central obesity, is not investigated yet.
Methods:
A total of 304 consecutive subjects who underwent general health examination including abdominal ultrasonography, transient elastography and abdominal fat CT at one tertiary center in Korea were enrolled prospectively. In this study, significant steatosis was diagnosed by ultrasonographic finding and CAP>250 dB/m.
Results:
Multivariate linear regression analysis revealed that VFA was significantly related with CAP, whereas body mass index (BMI) was related with CAP only in univariate analysis. In the multiple logistic regression analysis, VFA (odd ratio [OR], 1.010; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.001-1.019; P=0.028) and TG (OR, 1.006; 95% CI, 1.001-1.011; P=0.022) were selected as independent risk factor for significant hepatic steatosis. When population was stratified according to VFA ≤100 cm2, 100<VFA≤200 cm2, VFA >200 cm2, patients with a higher VFA were at a greater risk of significant hepatic steatosis with OR of 4.838 (P<0.001; 95% CI, 2.912-8.039) for 100<VFA≤ 200 cm2; OR of 7.474 (P<0.001; 95% CI, 2.462-22.693) for VFA >200 cm2, as compared to those with VFA ≤ 100 cm2.
Conclusions:
Our data demonstrated that VFA was significantly related with significant hepatic steatosis assessed by CAP, suggesting that surveillance of hepatic steatosis need to be performed according the parameter which represents central obesity, not just BMI.