Fatty liver in patients with moderate alcohol consumption, diabetes mellitus and overweight

A relationship between the occurrence of fatty liver and moderate alcohol intake, maturity onset diabetes, overweight--and combinations of these three factors--was searched for in 112 patients. Fifty-three of 59 patients with moderate alcohol consumption, 49 of 57 overweight patients, and 42 of 51 diabetic patients had fatty liver. Patients who had a moderate alcohol consumption or suffered from a combination of diabetes and overweight were found to have a significantly higher frequency and degree of fatty liver than patients in the control group. Diabetes alone, and overweight alone were not significantly related to fatty liver. Whether the diabetic state was overt of latent, there was no influence on the frequency or degree of fatty liver. A correlation between the degree of overweight and the degree of fatty liver was found only in the group of overweight patients with moderate alcohol consumption. The degree of fatty liver produced by the combination of overweight and diabetes was not significantly increased by moderate alcohol consumption.