Two-hour postload glycemia is associated to an increased risk of NAFLD in healthy subjects with family history of type 2 diabetes: a case control study

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) includes steatosis and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which can be complicated by cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma [1]. NAFLD affects over 30 % of the general population and is associated with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), obesity and metabolic syndrome. NAFLD prevalence in T2DM patients is about 70 % using ultrasonography (US). NAFLD and T2DM share insulinresistance, which in the liver increases gluconeogenesis and glycogenolysis, resulting in hyperglycemia. The pancreatic beta islet cells adapt to hyperglycemia by increasing insulin secretion. Hyperinsulinemia upregulates several lipogenic transcription factors, promoting hepatic lipid synthesis. The association between NAFLD and T2DM seems to be the result of a “common soil”. Several studies showed that NAFLD predicts T2DM and vice versa, and that each condition may act as a progression factor for the other. There is evidence of a high risk of NASH and its progression to hepatocellular carcinoma in T2DM patients [6]. Conversely, recent studies showed that NAFLD not only predicts diabetes, but also contributes to poor glycemic control and chronic complications [8]. Despite its clear link with T2DM, the association of NAFLD with family history of diabetes has been poorly investigated. A recent cross-sectional study in nondiabetic individuals with NAFLD demonstrated that family history of diabetes increased the risk of NASH and fibrosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of NAFLD in healthy first degree relatives of T2DM patients (T2DM-rel) and in healthy subjects without family history of T2DM and to assess the risk factors associated with NAFLD development

Assessment of trabecular bone score (TBS) in overweight/obese men: effect of metabolic and anthropometric factors

The "trabecular bone score" (TBS) indirectly explores bone quality, independently of bone mineral density (BMD). We investigated the effects of anthropometric and metabolic parameters on TBS in 87 overweight/obese men. We assessed BMD and TBS by DXA, and some parameters of glucose metabolism, sex-and calciotropic hormone levels. Regression models were adjusted for either age and BMI, or age and waist circumference, or age and waist/hip ratio, also considering BMI >35 (y/n) and metabolic syndrome (MS) (y/n). Correlations between TBS and parameters studied were higher when correcting for waist circumference, although not significant in subjects with BMI >35. The analysis of covariance showed that the same model always had a higher adjusted r-square index. BMD at lumbar spine and total hip, fasting glucose, bioavailable testosterone, and sex hormone-binding globulin are the only covariates having a significant effect (p 35 on TBS values or significant interaction terms between each covariate and either BMI >35 or the presence of MS. Obesity negatively affected TBS, despite unchanged BMD. Alterations of glucose homeostasis and sex hormone levels seem to influence this relationship, while calciotropic hormones have no role. The effect of waist circumference on TBS is more pronounced than that of BMI

Short-term effects of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists on fat distribution in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: an ultrasonography study

AIMS:Glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RA) induce weight loss and reduction in adipose tissue, but the effects of GLP-1 RA on the distribution of fat deposits have been poorly investigated. METHODS: In 25 patients with type 2 diabetes (16 females and 9 males, mean age 63.5 ± 8.8 years), treated with GLP-1 RA (exenatide, n. 12; liraglutide, n.13), both before and 3 months after starting treatment, an abdominal ultrasonographic scan, with Doppler of renal arteries, and echocardiography were performed. Subcutaneous fat width (peri-umbilical and sub-xiphoid), deep fat deposits (pre-aortic, peri-renal, and epicardial), and renal resistive index (RI) were evaluated. RESULTS: GLP-1 RA induced highly significant (p < 0.001) decrease in BMI and in fat thickness at all the assessed sites, without differences between exenatide and liraglutide treatment. A slight decrease in RI (p = 0.055) was also found. The percent changes of fat thickness was different between sites (p < 0.025), and the changes in subcutaneous deposits showed no significant correlation (p = 0.064) with those of deep fat deposits. CONCLUSIONS: A short course of treatment with GLP-1 RA, besides weight loss, induces a redistribution of adipose tissue deposits, possibly contributing to a better cardiovascular risk profile in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus

Assessment of Skeletal Muscle Mass in Older People: Comparison Between 2 Anthropometry-Based Methods and Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry

Sarcopenia is a common geriatric syndrome, whose diagnosis implies the assessment of muscle mass. Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is the reference method for clinical practice, but it is not universally available. We compared DXA with 2 anthropometry-based methods to assess muscle mass in older adults

Classification with imperfect supervisor: an iterative approach

In this paper we present a possible extension of the well known k-means classification algorithm to tackle the problem of supervised classification in the case where the training set is affected by error or it has been classified by an imperfect supervisor

Proximity measures in symbolic data analysis

The Authors consider the general problem of similarity and dissimilarity measures in Symbolic Data Analysis. First of all they examine the classical definitions of elementary event, assertion object, hierarchical dependences and logical dependences. Then they consider some well-known measures of similarity and dissimilarity between two objects (Sokal-Michener, Roger-Tanimoto, Sokal-Sneath, Dice-Czekanowski-Sorenson, Russel-Rao). For resemblance measures based on aggregation functions, the authors consider the proposal of Gowda-Diday, De Baets et al., Malerba et al., Vladutu et al., and Ichino-Iyaghuchi. A paragraph is dedicated to the general algebraic structure; particularly to intervals and vector lattices in Banach space