The association of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and metabolic syndrome in a Chinese population

BACKGROUND: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with features of metabolic syndrome. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between NAFLD and metabolic syndrome in a Chinese population.METHODS: Data from subjects were retrospectively collected from 2006 to 2009. The exclusion criteria included significant consumption of alcohol and chronic hepatitis B and C. The patients were assigned to two groups according to ultrasound findings: normal group and fatty liver group. The liver func-tion of patients was determined by assessing serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT). Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed based on the 2005 International Diabetes Federation criteria.RESULTS: A total of 7568 subjects were enrolled and 5736 (75.8%) and 1832 (24.2%) patients were assigned to the nor-mal and fatty liver groups, respectively. The fatty liver group had significant male predominance (69.7% vs 56.0%), higher body mass index (mean, 26.67 vs 23.55 kg/m2) compared with the normal group. There were 441 (7.7%) and 377 (20.6%) cases with metabolic syndrome in the normal and fatty liver groups, respectively, with significant difference (P=0.001), and the subgroup of 385 cases with fatty liver and elevated ALT had higher prevalence (28.8%) of metabolic syndrome. The strongest association of an individual component of meta-bolic syndrome with NAFLD was hyperlipidemia (adjusted OR=2.55, 95% CI: 2.22-2.94).CONCLUSION: The individuals with NAFLD had a higher ra-tio of metabolic syndrome. Hyperlipidemia had the strongest positive association with NAFLD.