Quantification of liver fat deposition in obese patients and diabetic patients: a pilot study on the correlation with myocardium and para-apical fat content

Abstract

Background Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease, and the mortality of NAFLD-related heart diseases is higher than that of NAFLD-related liver diseases. We aimed to quantitatively measure liver, myocardium, and para-apical fat in obese patients and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients with varying degrees of liver fat deposition using IDEAL-IQ technology and to explore the differences in fat content and their correlations. Materials and Methods This study retrospectively analyzed the data of 170 patients, including 85 obese patients (50 males, 35 females; average age, 43.5 years) and 85 T2DM patients (45 males, 40 females; average age, 45.5 years). All patients underwent axial T1WI, T2WI, and IDEAL-IQ, the FF map of the right liver lobe, the interventricular septum, the left ventricle, and para-apical fat was used for the quantitative measurement of fat content. Results For obese patients, the myocardial fat content was significantly higher in the severe fatty liver group than other liver groups (left ventricle, 3.65% ± 0.80%; interventricular septum, 3.46% ± 0.84%). For T2DM patients, the fat contents of different para-apical fat were positively correlated with fatty liver severity (p < 0.05) and were higher in T2DM patients with fatty liver than in obese patients with fatty liver. For both obese patients and T2DM patients, para-apical fat was only significantly different between the normal liver group (obese patients, 89.10±3.73%; T2DM patients, 89.14±3.80%) and the mild fatty liver group (obese patients, 92.64±2.43%; T2DM patients, 92.42±2.70%) (p < 0.01) and was unrelated to fatty liver severity (p > 0.05). Conclusion The results showed myocardial fat content increased with liver fat content, T2DM patients were more likely to have myocardial fat deposition than obese patients, and the fat content trends were consistent in para-apical fat in patients with varying degrees of fatty liver. This study provides an accurate and non-invasive method for the diagnosis and treatment of NAFLD-related heart diseases in obese patients and T2DM patients.