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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Cardiovascular Endocrinology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1416407
This article is part of the Research Topic Metabolic Syndrome in Patients with Diabetes: Identification of Biomarkers View all 5 articles

Pre-diabetes and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in NAFLD Patients: A Retrospective Comparative Analysis

Provisionally accepted
Azam Teimouri Azam Teimouri 1Zahra Ebrahimpour Zahra Ebrahimpour 2Awat Feizi Awat Feizi 3Bijan Iraj Bijan Iraj 4Elahe Saffari Elahe Saffari 4Mojtaba Akbari Mojtaba Akbari 4Mozhgan Karimifar Mozhgan Karimifar 4*
  • 1 Isfahan Gastroenterology and Hepatology Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
  • 2 Metabolic Liver Disease Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran, Isfahan, Iran
  • 3 Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
  • 4 Isfahan Endocrine and Metabolism Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran, Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objectives: Insulin resistance plays a critical role in the pathophysiology of diabetes mellitus and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Moreover, insulin resistance has a central role in atherogensis as the major leading cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD). The aim of the present study was to assess the frequency of pre-diabetes and evaluate the cardiometabolic risk factors among NAFLD patients, comparing those with pre-diabetes to those with normal glucose tolerance.In the current retrospective case-control study, the data of 1031 NAFLD patients was retrieved. Based on blood glucose levels, 337 diabetics, 340 prediabetes, and, 354 normal glucose patients were diagnosed. After excluding diabetic NAFLD patients, 694 individuals were divided into two groups: normal glucose and pre-diabetes. Various variables, such as age, anthropometric measurements, hypertension, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and lipid profiles, were extracted from patient files. Statistical analysis was conducted to assess cardiovascular risk factors in NAFLD patients.Results: Higher age, female gender, higher BMI, triglyceride, waist and hip circumference and waist-to-hip ratio were found in pre-diabetic NAFLD individuals compared with normoglycemic ones (P-value<0.05). Multivariable age-, sex-, BMI-and smoking-adjusted logistic regression showed a predicting role of pre-diabetes and NAFLD concurrence with metabolic syndrome (P-value<0.001, OR:4.31, 95% CI: 2.95-6.29), but not CVD (P-value=0.353, OR:1.37, 95% CI: 0.71-2.61).In this study, nearly one-third of NAFLD patients had pre-diabetes.The mean value of age, BMI, TG, waist and Hip circumference was significantly higher in pre-diabetic patients. The concurrence of pre-diabetes and NAFLD was a predicting factor for metabolic syndrome, but not CVD events.

    Keywords: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), Pre-diabetes, Diabetes, Cardiometabolic risk factors, BMI, metabolic syndrome

    Received: 12 Apr 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Teimouri, Ebrahimpour, Feizi, Iraj, Saffari, Akbari and Karimifar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Mozhgan Karimifar, Isfahan Endocrine and Metabolism Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran, Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

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