The Triglyceride and Glucose Index Is a Predictor of Incident Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A Population-Based Cohort Study

Abstract EN

Background.

The triglyceride and glucose index (TyG), defined as the product of triglycerides (TG) and fasting plasma glucose (FPG), is reported as a surrogate index for insulin resistance.

Although a cross-sectional study revealed the association between the TyG-index and the prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), few studies have investigated the association between the TyG-index and incident NAFLD.

Here we investigated whether the TyG-index can be used to predict incident NAFLD.

Methods.

This historical cohort study included 16,093 apparently healthy Japanese individuals.

The TyG-index was calculated by the established formula: TyG = Ln [TG (mg/dl) × FPG (mg/dl)/2].

Fatty liver was diagnosed based on the subjects’ abdominal ultrasonography results.

We divided the subjects into tertiles according to the levels of TyG-index.

Hazard ratios (HRs) of the TyG-index for incident NAFLD were calculated by a Cox proportional hazards regression model.

Results.

During the observation period, 27.4% of the men and 11.0% of the women developed NAFLD.

The highest TyG-index tertile (men, 8.48 ≤ TyG and women, 7.97 ≤ TyG) (adjusted HR 1.67, 95% CI 1.44–1.94, p<0.001 in the men and 2.06, 1.59–2.70, p<0.001 in the women) and the middle TyG-index tertile (men, 8.00 < TyG ≤ 8.48 and women, 7.53

Conclusions.

Our findings demonstrate that the TyG-index is significantly associated with incident NAFLD.