Association between Serum Gamma-Glutamyltransferase and Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome Using Data from the Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study. Lee Mi Young,Hyon Dae Sung,Huh Ji Hye,Kim Hae Kyung,Han Sul Ki,Kim Jang Young,Koh Sang Baek Endocrinology and metabolism (Seoul, Korea) BACKGROUND:The aim of this study was to determine whether there is a positive correlation between gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) levels and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and whether GGT can be used as an easily checkable metabolic index using data from the large-scale Korean Genome and Epidemiology Study (KoGES). METHODS:We obtained data of 211,725 participants of the KoGES. The collected data included age, sex, height, weight, waist circumference, and various biochemical characteristics, including serum GGT levels. The data of study participants who ingested more than 40 g/day of alcohol and who were diagnosed with metabolic syndrome at baseline was excluded. We analyzed the prevalence of metabolic syndrome according to GGT quartiles in both genders. RESULTS:The GGT level was significantly higher in subjects with metabolic syndrome compared to normal subjects (37.92±48.20 mg/dL vs. 25.62±33.56 mg/dL). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome showed a stepwise increase with GGT quartiles in both male and female subjects. Compared to the lowest GGT quartile, the odds ratio was 1.534 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.432 to 1.643), 1.939 (95% CI, 1.811 to 2.076), and 2.754 (95% CI, 2.572 to 2.948) in men and 1.155 (95% CI, 1.094 to 1.218), 1.528 (95% CI, 1.451 to 1.609), and 2.022 (95% CI, 1.921 to 2.218) in women with increasing GGT quartile. The cutoff value of GGT predicting risk of metabolic syndrome was 27 IU/L in men and 17 IU/L in women. CONCLUSION:We suggested that GGT could be an easily checkable marker for the prediction of metabolic syndrome. 10.3803/EnM.2019.34.4.390

Clinical Criteria Correlated with the Incidence of Patients with Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease. Chien-Min Kung,Cheng-Chuan Liu Annals of clinical and laboratory science GOALS:In this study, predictive panels were constructed and validated to recognize an individual with and without nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) based on clinical and biochemical criteria. METHODS:Two hundred and thirty six non-alcoholic adults with no chronic viral hepatitis history were recruited from a medical center in Taiwan in 2013. All subjects were examined for body mass index (BMI), abdominal ultrasonography, blood liver function tests (including alanine aminotransferase [ALT], aspartate aminotransferase [AST], gamma glutamyl transpeptidase [GGT]), blood lipids (total cholesterol [TC] and triglyceride [TG]) and blood glucose (BG) tests. RESULTS:NAFLD was observed in 66.97% of subjects. BMI (<0.001), ALT (<0.001), AST (=0.014), GGT (=0.034), TC (=0.026), TG (<0.001) and BG (<0.001) were significantly higher for subjects with NAFLD than subjects without NAFLD. The BMI results (<0.001), TG (<0.001), ALT (<0.001), BG (<0.001), AST (=0.001), and GGT (=0.001) correlated well with the extent of NAFLD. The increasing risks of NAFLD are hypertriglyceridemia (<0.001), high ALT (<0.001), high GGT (=0.009), and hypercholesterolemia (=0.017). Moreover, NAFLD was observed in 98.5% (<0.001) of subjects with three clinical manifestations of body overweight, hypertriglyceridemia and high ALT. Additionally, NAFLD was observed in 96.5% (<0.001) of subjects with other tri-criteria (body overweight, hypertriglyceridemia, and hypercholesterolemia), or 92.6% (<0.001) of subjects with another tri-criteria (body overweight, hypertriglyceridemia, and high GGT). CONCLUSION:The tri-criteria of diagnoses can accurately predict the surveillance of NAFLD.