1)Assistant Professor, Department of Radiology, Shariati Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences. North Kargar Ave. Tehran 14114, Iran. 2)Digestive Tract Image Processing Research Group, Digestive Diseases Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Digestive Tract Image Processing Research Group, Digestive Diseases Research Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences. North Kargar Ave. Tehran 14117-13135, Iran.
Arch Iran Med. 2016 Oct;19(10):693-699.
To investigate the association between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and quantitative measures of central adiposity in the general population using a semi-automated method on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data.
Subjects were recruited from Golestan Cohort Study. Two groups of 120 individuals with and without fatty liver were randomly selected based on findings of ultrasound. Non-invasive diagnosis of NAFLD was made by combination of ultrasound and MRI. Various anthropometric indices including body mass index (BMI), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) were measured. Segmentation and calculation of visceral (VFA) and subcutaneous fat area (SFA) were performed on three levels of MRI slices using semi-automated software.
A total of 109 individuals fulfilled the NAFLD criteria, while 92 subjects were selected as the control group. All obesity measures, except for SFA, were significantly higher in subjects with NAFLD compared to controls. Significant associations were found between NAFLD and adiposity indices, except for SFA, with the highest odds ratio observed in WHR (OR: 3.37, CI: 1.40-3.70, P < 0.001). VFA also had the greatest correlation with ultrasound (r = 0.523, P < 0.001) and MRI (r = 0.546, P < 0.001) indicators of NAFLD.
Quantitative measures of visceral adiposity are associated with NAFLD, while subcutaneous fat measures are poor indicators for identifying NAFLD. Compared to conventional anthropometric indices, VFA best correlates with ultrasound and MRI criteria of fatty liver.
本研究旨在使用磁共振成像（MRI）数据的半自动方法，在普通人群中调查非酒精性脂肪肝（NAFLD）与定量中心性肥胖指标之间的关联。
研究对象来自戈勒斯坦队列研究。根据超声检查结果，随机选择两组各 120 名无脂肪性肝病和有脂肪性肝病的个体。NAFLD 的非侵入性诊断通过超声和 MRI 的结合来确定。测量了包括体重指数（BMI）、腰臀比（WHR）和腰围身高比（WHtR）在内的各种人体测量指数。使用半自动软件在 MRI 切片的三个层面上对内脏脂肪（VFA）和皮下脂肪面积（SFA）进行分割和计算。
共有 109 名个体符合 NAFLD 标准，而 92 名个体被选为对照组。与对照组相比，所有肥胖指标（除 SFA 外）在患有 NAFLD 的个体中均显著升高。除 SFA 外，NAFLD 与肥胖指数之间存在显著相关性，其中 WHR 的比值比最高（OR：3.37，95%CI：1.40-3.70，P < 0.001）。VFA 与超声（r = 0.523，P < 0.001）和 MRI（r = 0.546，P < 0.001）诊断 NAFLD 的指标相关性最强。
定量测量内脏脂肪与 NAFLD 相关，而皮下脂肪测量对识别 NAFLD 的指标较差。与传统的人体测量指数相比，VFA 与超声和 MRI 诊断脂肪肝的标准相关性最佳。
