Sarcopenia is a new risk factor of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in patients with inflammatory bowel disease.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Recently, sarcopenia has been proposed as an additional risk factor of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and there have been no studies in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. We aimed to analyze the clinical associations between sarcopenia and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in inflammatory bowel disease patients.
METHODS: From January 2004 to December 2017, a total of 488 inflammatory bowel disease patients, with computed tomography results, were classified according to the presence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Sarcopenia was assessed based on the muscle volume calculated by the total psoas muscle area in the third lumbar region divided by the square of the patient's height (m2).
RESULTS: Among the 443 included patients, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was diagnosed in 49 patients (11.1%). Sarcopenia was noted in 34.9%; it was more common in the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease group (51.0% vs. 33.0%; p = 0.019). In multivariate analysis, metabolic syndrome (odds ratio: 8.63), hyperuricemia (odds ratio: 4.66), small bowel resection (odds ratio: 3.45), and sarcopenia (odds ratio: 2.99) were significant risk factors of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in inflammatory bowel disease patients. In addition, sarcopenia was an independent risk factor after adjustment for age, sex, and other metabolic factors (odds ratio: 2.26).
CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver in inflammatory bowel disease patients was 11.1% and sarcopenia was an independent risk factor.