Interaction of Type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

Evauation of: Kasturiratne A, Weerasinghe S, Dassanayake A et al. Influence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease on the development of diabetes mellitus. J. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 28(1), 142-147 (2013). It has been a few decades that Type 2 diabetes has been clearly linked to the development and progression of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In a recent study reported by Kastuiratne et al., the reverse scenario is also reported. In this study, a cohort of Sri Lankan adults were evaluated for NAFLD by ultrasound and for the presence of Type 2 diabetes. Those without diabetes at baseline were followed prospectively for 3 years and assessed for incident diabetes. On multivariate analysis, after adjustment for a number of factors (age, impaired fasting glucose, BMI, waist circumference, elevated ALT, family history of diabetes and presence of hypertension and hyperlipidemia), NAFLD was the only predictor of incident diabetes in those with and without impaired fasting glucose at baseline. This study adds to the growing evidence connecting NAFLD to Type 2 diabetes and highlights the importance of its recognition in an effort to target those at the highest risk of diabetes for lifestyle and pharmacologic intervention.