• Kaori Kinoshita, Nobuyuki Toshikuni, Takashi Saito, Nobuhiko Hayashi, Takahiro Minato, Yasuhiro Matsue, Yoshimichi Ueda, Mutsumi Tsuchishima, and Mikihiro Tsutsumi.
• Department of Hepatology, Kanazawa Medical University, Ishikawa, Japan
• Turk J Med Sci. 2019 Oct 24; 49 (5): 135013571350-1357.

Background/AimTo elucidate how the combination of fatty liver and increased serum gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) levels influences atherosclerotic plaque development in apparently healthy people.Materials And MethodsThe study population included people who had received an annual health checkup for more than 7 years and had no evidence of carotid plaque at baseline. We investigated the risk factors for carotid plaque occurrence using the Cox proportional hazards model.ResultsA total of 107 people (76 men and 31 women; median age, 49 years) were enrolled. At baseline, fatty liver and a serum GGT level ≥50 U/L were observed in 13 and 38 people, respectively. During a median follow-up period of 13.3 years, carotid plaques appeared in 34 people. Multivariate analysis revealed that the combination of fatty liver and a serum GGT level ≥50 U/L was the only significant risk factor for carotid plaque occurrence (age- and sex-adjusted hazard ratio: 5.55; 95% confidence interval 1.70–18.14; P = 0.005).ConclusionThe combination of fatty liver and increased serum GGT levels raises the risk for atherosclerotic plaque development in apparently healthy people.This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

24 keywords...

hide…