Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease as a sentinel marker for the development of diabetes mellitus in non-obese subjects

Non alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is associated with substantial cardiometabolic morbidity. We evaluated the long-term extrahepatic complications of NAFLD and sought to evaluate NAFLD in non-obese subjects. A total of 2920 participants were retrospectively selected from a health check-up center in 2000, and followed through to December 2010. NAFLD was diagnosed using ultrasonography. Subjects were stratified according to body mass index, NAFLD, and metabolic syndrome. The prevalence of non-obese NAFLD subjects and metabolically unhealthy non-obese subjects was 14.4% and 8.7%, respectively. In the multivariate analysis, non-obese NAFLD subjects had a significantly higher risk for diabetes mellitus (DM; HR 2.69, 95% CI 1.72–4.20, P