External validation and comparison of simple tools to screen for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in Chinese community population.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Various noninvasive tools based on anthropometric indicators, blood lipids, and liver enzymes, etc. have been developed to screen for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), with different diagnostic performance and cutoff values among studies. We aimed to validate and compare eight NAFLD-related models developed by simple indicators and to define their cutoff values in Chinese community population.

METHODS:

A cross-sectional study was conducted in a health examination cohort of 3259 people. NAFLD was diagnosed by ultrasonography. General, anthropometric and biochemical data were collected. Fatty liver index (FLI), fatty liver disease index (FLD), Zhejiang University index (ZJU), lipid accumulation product (LAP), regression formula of controlled attenuation parameter (CAP), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), triglyceride and glucose index (TyG), and visceral adiposity index (VAI) were calculated. The accuracy and cutoff points to detect NAFLD were evaluated by area under the receiver operator characteristic curve and the maximum Youden index analysis, respectively. A head-to-head comparison between these models and Decision Curve Analysis (DCA) was conducted.

RESULTS:

In eight noninvasive diagnostic models of NAFLD, AUCs of FLI and FLD for NAFLD were higher than those of other models in the whole (0.852 and 0.852), male (0.826 and 0.824), and female (0.897 and 0.888) population, respectively. DCA showed that FLI, FLD, and ZJU have higher net benefit to screen for NAFLD compared to other models.

CONCLUSIONS:

FLI and FLD could be the most accurate and applicable of eight models for the noninvasive diagnosis of NAFLD in both male and female groups.

• Authors: Liuxin Zhang, Mengting Zhang, Min Wang, Minxian Wang, Ru Zhang, Hongliang Wang, Wei Zhang, Yajie Ding, Jie Wang
• Journal: European journal of gastroenterology & hepatology (Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol) Vol. 34 Issue 8 Pg. 865-872 (08 01 2022) ISSN: 1473-5687 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 35802528 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

Chemical References

• Triglycerides

Topics

• Body Mass Index
• China (epidemiology)
• Cross-Sectional Studies
• Female
• Humans
• Male
• Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (diagnosis, epidemiology)
• ROC Curve
• Triglycerides
• Waist Circumference