Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: The coexistence of type 2 diabetes in patients with metabolic steatopathy is quite common due to a shared pathophysiology of the two conditions, primarily centered around insulin resistance. The objective of our study was to investigate the impact of type 2 diabetes on the prognosis of metabolic steatopathy.

Patients and Methods: This was a cross-sectional, single-center descriptive study that collected all cases of metabolic steatopathy presenting to outpatient clinics between March 2021 and December 2022. The age and various medical histories were specified. Anthropometric measurements were taken. A biological assessment, including a metabolic and hepatic profile, was conducted. Liver fibrosis was assessed using simple serum tests (APRI and FIB-4) and Transient elastography-Fibroscan. The quantification of the degree of steatosis was performed using the Controlled Attenuation Parameter (CAP) integrated into the Fibroscan device. We divided the study population into two groups: Group 1: diabetic patients and Group 2: non-diabetic patients. We compared the clinical, biological profiles, and the degree of liver fibrosis and steatosis in each of the two groups.

Results: We collected 139 patients with a mean age of 54.21±10.7 years and a gender ratio of 0.52. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes was 43.2%. In terms of basic demographic data, a history of hypertension and associated dyslipidemia was significantly more common in Group 1, with p-values of 0.016 and 0.009, respectively. The average waist circumference of diabetic patients was significantly higher (105.2 cm versus 100.8 cm) (P= 0.05). In terms of biological data, hypertransaminasemia was more frequently observed among diabetic patients (P= 0.037), with a predominance of ASAT (42.1 versus 28.8 IU/l) (P= 0.025). The average FIB-4 score was significantly higher in diabetic patients (0.149 versus 0.105) (P= 0.05). Liver elasticity was higher in Group 1 (9.93 versus 5.77 kPa) (P= 0.001). We did not observe a significant difference in terms of degree of hepatic steatosis between the two groups.

Conclusion: Type 2 diabetes accelerates the progression of hepatic fibrosis in patients with metabolic steatopathy and, therefore, worsens the prognosis for these patients.