Assessment of liver fat content using quantitative ultrasonography to evaluate risks for metabolic diseases

The ultrasound quantitative method for liver fat content (LFC) is a recent established method for non-invasive assessment of liver steatosis. Its use in clinical practice is further explored by investigating the quantitative relationships between LFC measured by quantitative ultrasonography and metabolic diseases in a middle-aged and elderly Chinese population.

Liver fat content was measured by the quantitative ultrasound method in 4,916 participants from the Shanghai Changfeng Community Study. The anthropometric and serum biochemical parameters related to glucose and lipid metabolism were detected for each participant. The carotid artery intima-media thickness (CIMT) was measured by ultrasonography.

The LFC displayed a non-Gaussian and positively skewed distribution in the community population and was significantly correlated with body weight, serum glucose, lipid profile, and CIMT. The 95th percentile of LFC in the subgroup of participants without any metabolic disease was 10.8%, and a LFC ≥ 10% was correlated with remarkable increases in the risks for glucose and lipid metabolic diseases.

The quantitative ultrasound method that was developed for measuring LFC was useful in a population study. A LFC ≥ 10% might help to identify the subjects with an increased risk for metabolic diseases.