Central Obesity and Liver Iron Content: A Noninvasive Assessment in General Population by Magnetic Resonance Imaging Publisher Pubmed



Radmard AR¹ ; Poustchi H² ; Taheri APH¹ ; Seresht MG¹ ; Mohammadinejad P³ ; Yoonessi A⁴ ; Dadgostar M⁶ ; Rahmanian MS⁵ ; Jafari E² ; Zeinoddini A³ ; Malekzadeh R² ; Merat S²
Source: Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism Published:2017

Abstract

Background/Aim: Existing evidence points to an altered status of iron metabolism in obesity. We aimed to investigate whether central obesity is independently associated with estimated liver iron content (liver T2∗ value) in general population that used the noninvasive assessment method by MRI. Methods: The study was carried out on 200 subjects randomly selected from the Golestan Cohort Study who underwent abdominal MRI. Quantitative T2∗ maps of entire cross-sectional area of liver were calculated using a semi-automated software for estimating the levels of iron content. Segmentation and calculation of visceral (VFA) and subcutaneous fat area (SFA) were also performed. Results: There was no significant difference in mean liver T2∗ values between obese (body mass index, BMI >30 kg/m2) and non-obese (BMI ≤30 kg/m2) subjects. After controlling for other covariates, no statistically significant association was detected between liver T2∗ values and VFA, SFA and VFA/SFA ratio. The drop in the relative signal intensity as an indicator of steatosis and serum ferritin predicted liver T2∗ values that almost had the same strength (standardized β of -0.41 and -0.41, respectively). Conclusions: Central obesity indices are not correlated with estimated liver iron content by MRI. Hepatic steatosis and serum ferritin seem to be the best predictors of hepatic T2∗ value. Since central obesity indices were not direct predictors of hepatic T2∗ value after the adjustment for confounding factors, it is possible that lipid accumulation in the liver locally, but not systematically, influences hepatic iron metabolism. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.