Endocrine Abstracts

Backgraound: Fatty liver can relate with arteriosclerosis. We investigated the atherogenic index in the patients with fatty liver.

Methods: Ninety-one patients with hyperlipidemia and 47 healthy subjects were included in the study. Fasting plasma levels of lipids were detected. Liver echogenity was measured by 3.75 mHz ultrasound probe and was graded by comparison with renal paranchymal echogenity. Atherogenic index was calculated as the ratio of plasma levels of cholestrol to plasma levels HDL – cholesterol.

Results: In the hyperlipidemia group, plasma levels of cholesterol were 253.5±41.0 (161–440) mg/dl, plasma levels of triglycerides were 231.8±74.4 (45–493) mg/dl, grading of liver echogenity was 1.9±0.6 (1–3) and atherogenic index was 4.9±1.1 (2.8–8.5). In the control group, plasma levels of cholesterol were 173.4±19.1 (122–207) mg/dl, plasma levels of triglycerides were 110.5±39.3 (40–185) mg/dl, grading of liver echogenity was 1.0 ± 0.1 (1.0–1.0) and atherogenic index was 3.4±0.7 (1.6–5.5). There were significant differences between plasma levels of lipids, liver echogenity and atherogenic index. In addition, there was a significant correlation between atherogenic index and liver echogenity in the fatty liver group (r=0.4, P(0.0001).

Conclusions: We found that atherogenic index was higher in the fatty liver group than the control group. In addition, there was a significant correlation between atherogenic index and liver echogenity in the fatty liver group.