Sarcopenia Is Independently Associated with the Degree of Liver Fibrosis in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
- Author:
Min Je SUNG
1
;
Tae Seop LIM
;
Mi Young JEON
;
Hye Won LEE
;
Beom Kyung KIM
;
Do Young KIM
;
Sang Hoon AHN
;
Kwang-Hyub HAN
;
Jun Yong PARK
;
Seung Up KIM
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article
- From:Gut and Liver 2020;14(5):626-635
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Background/Aims:Sarcopenia is associated with liver fi-brosis in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and chronic hepatitis B. We investigated the association between sarcopenia and hepatic fibrotic burden in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
Methods:Patients with T2DM who had received a comprehensive medical health checkup were recruited. Muscle mass was assessed using com-puted tomography. Fibrotic burden was assessed using the fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4). The study population was divided by quartile stratification of the lumbar skeletal muscle index (LSMI).
Results:Among 309 patients with T2DM, 75 (24.3%) had sarcopenia. These patients were significantly older and had higher FIB-4, whereas they had significantly lower body mass index (BMI) and LSMI than patients without sarcopenia (all p<0.05). The LSMI showed a significant negative cor-relation with the FIB-4 when analyzed in terms of quartile stratification (p=0.003). Multivariate analysis showed that female sex and higher BMI were independently associated with a reduced risk of sarcopenia (odds ratio [OR], 0.388;95% confidence interval [CI], 0.199 to 0.755 and OR, 0.704;95% CI, 0.618 to 0.801; all p<0.05), whereas a higher FIB-4 was independently associated with an increased risk of sarcopenia (OR, 1.817; 95% CI, 1.180 to 2.797; p=0.007).Among patients with a BMI <25 kg/m 2 (n=165), those with sarcopenia (n=54, 32.7%) had a significantly higher FIB-4 than those without (n=111, 67.3%; 1.66 vs 1.38, p=0.004).
Conclusions:Sarcopenia is independently associated with fibrotic burden in patients with T2DM. Further studies should investigate whether the improvement of sarcopenia can ameliorate liver fibrosis in patients with T2DM.
