A low level of serum total testosterone is independently associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

BMC Gastroenterology

Research Article

Cheol Min Lee¹  Seung-Won Oh¹  Hyuktae Kwon¹  Sunmi Kim²  Ho-Chun Choi³  Jin-Ho Park³  Belong Cho³  Donghee Kim⁴ 

[1] Department of Family Medicine, Healthcare Research Institute, Seoul National University Hospital Healthcare System Gangnam Center, Seoul, South Korea;Department of Family Medicine, Kangwon National University Hospital, Kangwondo, South Korea;Department of Family Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea;Department of Internal Medicine, Healthcare Research Institute, Seoul National University Hospital Healthcare System Gangnam Center, Seoul, South Korea;

关键词: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease;    Total testosterone;    Visceral adipose tissue;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-230X-12-69

 received in 2011-12-27, accepted in 2012-06-12,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe association between low serum testosterone levels, visceral adipose tissue (VAT), and metabolic syndrome is now well known. However, the relationship between hepatic steatosis and serum testosterone levels has not been extensively studied. Our aim was to investigate the association of serum total testosterone levels with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), adjusting for the influence of VAT and insulin resistance.MethodsThis study is a retrospective observational cross-sectional one of healthy Korean men and was conducted at the Seoul National University Hospital Healthcare System Gangnam Center. We used data obtained from 495 men who were at least 20 years of age and who had undergone blood testing, abdominal computed tomography, and ultrasonography. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to explore the association of serum total testosterone levels with NAFLD.ResultsMen in the low serum testosterone quintile were at a higher risk for NAFLD than men in the highest serum testosterone quintile. After adjusting for age, smoking, diabetes, exercise, BMI, triglycerides, and high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, subjects with serum testosterone levels in the lowest quintile had an odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval (CI)) of 5.12 (2.43–10.77) for NAFLD (p value, 0.0004). The inverse association between serum testosterone and NAFLD was attenuated by further adjustment for variables including VAT; however, it remained statistically significant (OR (95% CI): 4.52 (2.09–9.80) in the lowest quintile; p value=0.004).ConclusionsA low serum total testosterone level was independently associated with NAFLD. This report is the first one suggesting the association remains unchanged even after controlling for VAT and insulin resistance.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Kim et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.