Association of Fatty Liver Index with Incident Diabetes Risk in Patients Initiating Statin–Therapy: A 6-Year Retrospective Study
Georgia Anastasiou,
Evangelos Liberopoulos,
Ermioni Petkou,
Amalia Despoina Koutsogianni,
Petros Spyridwnas Adamidis,
George Liamis,
Evangelia Ntzani,
Fotios Barkas
Affiliations
Georgia Anastasiou
Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, 451 10 Ioannina, Greece
Evangelos Liberopoulos
1st Propaedeutic Department of Medicine, Laiko General Hospital of Athens, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 157 72 Athens, Greece
Ermioni Petkou
Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, 451 10 Ioannina, Greece
Amalia Despoina Koutsogianni
Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, 451 10 Ioannina, Greece
Petros Spyridwnas Adamidis
Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, 451 10 Ioannina, Greece
George Liamis
Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, 451 10 Ioannina, Greece
Evangelia Ntzani
Department of Hygiene & Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, 451 10 Ioannina, Greece
Fotios Barkas
Department of Hygiene & Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Ioannina, 451 10 Ioannina, Greece
Background: Statins are associated with new-onset type 2 diabetes (T2D), mainly in patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS). The fatty liver index (FLI) is used as a prognostic score for the diagnosis of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is common in patients with MetS. We aimed to investigate the association of FLI with new-onset T2D in patients initiating statin therapy. Methods: A retrospective observational study including 1241 individuals with dyslipidemia and followed up for ≥3 years. Patients with T2D and those receiving lipid-lowering treatment at the baseline visit were excluded. Models with clinical and laboratory parameters were used to assess the association of FLI with incident T2D. Results: Among the 882 eligible subjects, 11% developed T2D during the follow-up (6 years; IQR: 4–10 years). After adjusting for sex, age and MetS parameters, a multivariate analysis revealed that age (HR:1.05; 95%CI: 1.01–1.09, p p p p = 0.001). A ROC curve analysis showed that FLI had a significant, although poor, predictive value for assessing T2D risk (C-Statistic: 0.67; 95%CI: 0.58–0.77, p = 0.001). Higher FLI values were associated with reduced T2D-free survival (log-rank = 15.46, p < 0.001). Conclusions: FLI is significantly and independently associated with new-onset T2D risk in patients initiating statin therapy.
