In our study, we compared diagnosing MAFLD using abdominal CT to diagnosing MAFLD using FLI. We found that the sensitivity and specificity of FLI were 0.712 and 0.713, respectively, with a cut-off value of 30.1037.
MAFLD was previously known as NAFLD. The prevalence of MAFLD is increasing in Western countries owing to socioeconomic changes and the rapid transition from malnutrition to excess calorie eating habits. It is also increasing in many parts of the Asia-Pacific region, and causes public health problems. Nutritionally unbalanced and unhealthy diet and excessive energy intake relative to energy expenditure contribute to the accumulation of triglycerides in adipose tissues and in the liver. Particularly, Asians, are more likely to have visceral fat accumulation despite their low BMI [14]. South Asians in the United States have higher insulin resistance than Caucasians despite having the same or lower BMI [15]. Even non-obese and skinny Asians with NAFLD are at high risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes mellitus [14, 16]. Larger WC and visceral adipose tissue correlated more significantly with insulin resistance and NAFLD than with a higher BMI [17]. However, although WC and visceral adipose tissue can predict MAFLD, more accurate indicators are still required and should be developed. According to the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver Clinical Practice Guidelines, abdominal ultrasonography is generally sufficient to detect hepatic steatosis and is the recommended primary diagnostic method for MAFLD imaging. Where possible, the measurement of controlled damping parameters using vibration-controlled transient elastography can be used as a more sensitive tool [6].
To evaluate NAFLD, a biopsy is performed. However, because a biopsy is invasive, a variety of imaging methods are increasingly being used. Imaging methods include both traditional and state-of-the-art technologies. Conventional imaging methods include B-mode ultrasonography, CT, and magnetic resonance imaging. The diagnostic findings of patients with NAFLD using these imaging methods are based on lipid accumulation. Conventional imaging techniques cannot assess the degree of inflammation or fibrosis. Therefore, new imaging techniques have been developed, namely, ultrasonic elastography, quantitative ultrasound-based technology, magnetic resonance elastography, and magnetic resonance-based fat quantification technology [18, 19]. In our study, fatty liver was confirmed using CT because it was only necessary to check lipid accumulation. WC was calculated using CT data to reduce the amount of errors by the examiner that occurred during WC measurement. If all imaging modalities are not available, such as in very large epidemiological studies, FLI can be used as an alternative method for diagnosing steatosis [6].
The sensitivity and specificity of FLI for diagnosing fatty liver at a cut-off value of 60 in the original study were 61% and 86%, respectively [7]. A population-based European study validated the FLI in 2,652 elderly participants and showed that the FLI has a good predictive value in older individuals for both NAFLD in patients of all ages and fatty liver diagnosed by ultrasonography. The sensitivity and specificity for fatty liver were 62% and 81%, respectively. As for the prediction of NAFLD, the AUROC was 0.813 [8]. The FLI has also been used to screen individuals at risk for NAFLD. As a continuous measurement, the FLI is closely related to the presence and severity of NAFLD, as assessed using ultrasonography [8]. FLI has also been shown to be associated with cardiovascular morbidity, mortality, and incidence of diabetes [20].
The 15-year all‐cause liver‐related, cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related, and cancer-related mortality rates were obtained to determine whether the FLI was associated with the prognosis in a population study. The FLI was found to be independently associated with liver-related mortality and was associated with all-cause mortality, CVD-related mortality, and cancer-related mortality. These associations appear to be closely related to the risks posed by the insulin resistance correlation [20]. A study involving middle-aged non-diabetic patients revealed that the intima-media thickness, increased CVD risk, and decreased insulin sensitivity were associated with high FLI values [21]. A previous study evaluated the predictive ability of two fatty liver markers (namely, the FLI and NAFLD fatty liver scores) for the onset of 9-year diabetes in the French general population. The FLI is a simple clinical tool for assessing the degree of liver fat and predicting diabetes incidence [22]. A previous study evaluated the accuracy of FLI and the optimal cut-off point for predicting NAFLD in middle-aged and elderly Chinese individuals. In this cross-sectional study, NAFLD was diagnosed using liver ultrasonography, and the accuracy and cut-off point of FLI were evaluated using each AUROC curve and maximum Youden index analysis, respectively. Thus, FLI was able to accurately identify NAFLD, and the optimal cut-off point was 30 in middle-aged and elderly Chinese individuals [11].
Jiang et al. conducted a study with 574 Chinese individuals to investigate whether FLI correlates with NAFLD and newly diagnosed coronary artery disease in a special Chinese population who underwent coronary angiography. FLI showed statistically significant results in predicting NAFLD; however, the AUROC was 0.721, which was not more effective than BMI with an AUROC of 0.728 [23]. A Korean study that verified the predictability of FLI in 376 patients. The results showed that the AUROC of BMI was the highest (0.813), followed by that of WC (0.787) and FLI (0.785) [24]. The study targeted NAFLD, and the number of participants in our study was 2.3 times that of the previous study.
Previous studies have also showed that low vitamin D levels are associated with NAFLD and are independent of factors such as metabolic syndrome [25, 26]. In an Italian study conducted on 262 participants who were referred to the Diabetes and Metabolic Disease Clinic Center, low vitamin D levels were identified to be associated with the presence of NAFLD independent of metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and insulin resistance [25]. However, in this study, the relationship between vitamin D and MAFLD was not significant. Vitamin D regulates the metabolism of free fatty acid by reducing free fatty acid-induced insulin resistance in peripheral tissues and hepatocytes. In those with vitamin D deficiency, increased free fatty acid in the bloodstream promotes fat storage in the liver and can lead to the development of NAFLD [27]. If more large-scale research is conducted, other results may be derived.
Our study has several limitations. First, it was conducted at a single center in a general hospital; hence, it cannot represent all Korean data. However, this limitation was supplemented using data from a larger number of participants, as compared to that in the previous study. Second, the diagnosis of fatty liver was not histologically confirmed through biopsy but was determined using CT.
In conclusion, our study verified the accuracy of the FLI for predicting MAFLD using CT; the AUROC of FLI for predicting MAFLD was 0.776. This suggests that the FLI can be used as a simple and cost-effective tool for screening MAFLD in clinical settings. In the future, FLI validation for predicting MAFLD should be performed in a large research group, and comparative analysis with other indices should be performed.