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We read the commentary by Francque and Wong1 with great interest. They pointed out that metabolic dysfunction could be the main factor associated with an increased risk of hepatic fibrosis among lean patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, it is unclear whether the definition of metabolic dysfunction would also fit lean patients, who are less likely to have metabolic risks.2 Herein, we evaluated the fibrosis burden in lean patients with NAFLD according to the presence of each metabolic dysfunction component.
We analysed participants in a community-based cohort, all of whom have undergone magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) for their health check-up (N=6775, 100% single ethnic Korean). Fatty liver was diagnosed by ultrasonography. The prevalence of NAFLD and lean (body mass index <23) NAFLD in all subjects was 35.2% and 3.7%, respectively. The mean liver stiffness value was lower in lean patients with NAFLD than in non-lean patients (2.26±0.55 vs 2.39±0.53, p<0.001) (online supplemental table 1). However, there was no difference in the prevalence of both significant (MRE …
Footnotes
HP and ELY are joint first authors.
HP and ELY contributed equally.
DWJ and E-HN contributed equally.
Contributors Guarantor of the article: DWJ. Concept and design: DWJ. Data collection and management: ELY, SC, E-HN. Interpretation of data: DWJ. Writing of the manuscript: HP. Supervision: DWJ, E-HN. All authors have approved the final version of the manuscript.
Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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