Abstract
BackgroundAlthough thyroid function has been demonstrated to be associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in different population, the prevalence and features of NAFLD in hyperthyroidism have not been reported. The present study aims to investigate the prevalence of NAFLD and association of thyroid function and NAFLD in hyperthyroidism patients.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was performed in Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, China. A total 117 patients with hyperthyroidism were consecutively recruited from 2014 to 2015. Thyroid function and other clinical features were measured, liver fat content was measured by color Doppler ultrasonically, NAFLD was defined in patients with liver fat content more than 9.15%. Statistical analyses were performed with SPSS software package version 13.0.ResultsThe prevalence of NAFLD was 11.97% in hyperthyroidism. Patient with NAFLD had lower free triiodothyronine (FT3) and free thyroxine (FT4) levels than patients without NAFLD (P < 0.05). After adjusting for age, gender, metabolic parameters and inflammation factors, higher FT3 were associated with lower liver fat content (β = − 0.072, P = 0.009) and decreased odds ratio of NAFLD (OR = 0.267, 95%CI 0.087–0.817, P = 0.021).ConclusionsFT3 level was negatively associated with the liver fat content in this population. These results may provide new evidence in the role of thyroid hormone on the regulation of liver fat content and NAFLD.
Highlights
Thyroid function has been demonstrated to be associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in different population, the prevalence and features of NAFLD in hyperthyroidism have not been reported
NAFLD is a broad spectrum of diseases involves non-alcoholic simple fatty liver (NASFL), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma
There were no significant differences in age, gender, blood pressure levels, Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), Alanine aminotransferase (ALT), Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), uric acid (UA), fasting blood glucose (FBG), fasting plasma insulin (f-INS), IL-6, hyper-sensitive C-reaction protein (HCRP) and Insulin resistance index (HOMA-IR) between the two groups (p > 0.05)
Summary
Thyroid function has been demonstrated to be associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in different population, the prevalence and features of NAFLD in hyperthyroidism have not been reported. The present study aims to investigate the prevalence of NAFLD and association of thyroid function and NAFLD in hyperthyroidism patients. NAFLD is a broad spectrum of diseases involves non-alcoholic simple fatty liver (NASFL), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), liver cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. Pathogenesis of NAFLD is not yet fully understood, The thyroid hormone plays an important role in glucose metabolism, lipid metabolism, and insulin resistance [7, 8]. Several other studies demonstrated that morbidity of NAFLD has an inverse association with thyroid hormone levels in the
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