The aim of the present study was to reveal the metabolic disorders most commonly associated with
nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (
NAFLD).
Triglyceride (TG),
high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL),
low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (
LDL),
blood glucose (BG) and
hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) were analyzed.
NAFLD was diagnosed using abdominal ultrasound (US), and TG, HDL,
LDL, BG and HbA1c were immediately collected on the same day and subjected to multivariate regression analysis. Stepwise analysis was performed to select the variables that were closely associated with
NAFLD. The patients who were positive for the
hepatitis B antigen and
hepatitis C antibody were excluded from the study. Additionally, the patients who were prescribed
prednisolone or
methotrexate were excluded from the study as these agents may cause
NAFLD or liver toxicity. The study included 168 and 125 patients with and without
NAFLD, respectively. TG, BG and HbA1c were strongly correlated with
NAFLD. Among these parameters, TG was the strongest predictor of
NAFLD (χ2=9.89, P=0.0017). TG was the parameter that was most strongly associated with
NAFLD. In conclusion, elevated TG was a marker of
NAFLD.