Abstract
Objective: Most cases of liver dysfunction, which is observed frequently in combination with obesity in annual health check-ups, are due to fatty liver. Fatty liver is considered to be a component of metabolic syndrome. However, as the significance of fatty liver in non-obese subjects has hardly been studied, we investigated the effects of fatty liver on clinical data and insulin resistance in non-obese subjects in comparison with obese subjects.
Methods: Our subjects were 936 healthy male office workers with similar workloads who visited our health institute for annual health check-ups. They were divided into 4 groups according to degree of obesity and the presence of fatty liver. Blood chemical data and HOMA-IR, an indicator of insulin resistance, were compared between subjects with and without fatty liver, and the relationship between fatty liver and HOMA-IR was investigated in non-obese and obese subjects.
Results: Both non-obese and obese subjects with fatty liver had higher titers for liver function tests, uric acid, serum lipids, and glucose, compared to those without fatty liver. In particular, HOMA-IR was very high in the former. Further, fatty liver was found to be more closely associated with insulin resistance in non-obese subjects than in obese subjects by logistic regression analyses.
Conclusion: Since fatty liver in the non-obese subjects indicated a higher degree of insulin resistance, compared to obese subjects, non-obese subjects with fatty liver also need to modify their lifestyles.
