Association of liver enzymes with metabolic syndrome and carotid atherosclerosis in young adults. The Cardiovascular Risk in Young Finns Study

Figures & data

Table I. Characteristics of the study population at base-line in 2001.

	Men		Women
Variable 2001	MetS(+)	MetS(−)	MetS(+)	MetS(−)
Number of subjects	100	529	84	840
Age (years)	33.3 ± 5.0	31.6 ± 5.0	33.0 ± 4.8	31.8 ± 5.0
Waist circumference (cm)	102 ± 11	87 ± 9	98 ± 11	77 + 9
Body mass index (kg/m^2)	29.6 ± 4.4	24.8 ± 3.3	31.9 ± 5.1	23.6 ± 3.7
Systolic blood pressure (mmHg)	130 ± 12	119 ± 11	124 ± 17	111 ± 11
Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg)	82 ± 11	71 ± 10	78 ± 12	68 ± 9
Total cholesterol (mmol/L)	5.63 ± 0.96	5.14 ± 0.97	5.50 ± 0.97	4.99 ± 0.85
LDL cholesterol (mmol/L)	3.59 ± 0.91	3.40 ± 0.89	3.51 ± 0.83	3.10 ± 0.74
HDL cholesterol (mmol/L)	0.94 ± 0.19	1.19 ± 0.27	1.10 ± 0.27	1.41 ± 0.28
Triglycerides (mmol/L)	2.33 (1.77–2.99)	1.15 (0.80–1.50)	1.80 (1.30–2.50)	0.97 (0.80–1.20)
Glucose (mmol/L)	5.65 ± 1.61	5.08 ± 0.50	5.35 ± 0.77	4.89 ± 0.78
Insulin (mU/L)	11.7 (8.0–16.0)	5.7 (4.0–8.0)	13.2 (9.0–18.0)	6.1 (4.0–8.0)
CRP (mg/L)	1.30 (0.63–2.45)	0.57 (0.26–1.12)	2.51 (1.60–4.21)	0.80 (0.34–1.91)
Adiponectin (ug/mL)	5.55 (3.80–6.70)	7.60 (5.4–9.3)	8.42 (5.9–9.7)	11.19 (8.10–13.85)
Daily smoking (%)	23	24	12	19
Alcohol intake (drinks/day)	1.2 (0.2–1.7)	1.2 (0.3–1.7)	0.5 (0–0.7)	0.5 (0–0.7)
Carotid IMT (mm)	0.62 ± 0.12	0.58 ± 0.10	0.60 ± 0.08	0.57 ± 0.09

Comparisons between subjects with MetS (+) and those without MetS (−).

P always < 0.001, except for alcohol intake (P = 0.90 for men and P = 0.28 for women) and smoking (P = 0.79 for men and P = 0.14 for women).

Values are mean ± SD or geometric mean (25–75 percentiles) for continuous variables and percent for smoking.

Table II. Cross-sectional age-and sex-adjusted comparison of liver enzyme levels between subjects with MetS (+) and without MetS (−) in populations with similar alcohol intake and BMI in 2007. Data from follow-up in 2007.

		ALT			GGT
		MetS(−)	MetS(+)	P value	MetS(−)	MetS(+)	P value
Mean (U/L)		13.9 (10.0–19.0)	23.0 (14.0–25.0)	<0.0001	20.8 (15.0–35.0)	36.9 (22.0–61.0)	<0.0001
Drinks per day < 1	n = 1099	13.0 (10.0–19.0)	18.9 (13.0–26.0)	<0.0001	18.8 (13.0–25.0)	27.9 (19.0–48.0)	<0.0001
Drinks per day 1 to < 2	n = 346	14.9 (12.0–22.0)	24.3 (23.0–52.0)	<0.0001	22.6 (15.0–30.0)	38.9 (30.0–66.0)	<0.0001
Drinks per day > 2	n = 87	14.3 (14.0–34.0)	23.6 (23.0–52.0)	0.004	27.1 (17.0–38.0)	38.9 (22.0–76.0)	0.06
BMI < 25 kg/m^2	n = 732	11.8 (9.0–16.0)	15.2 (13.0–23.0)	0.04	16.8 (12.0–23.0)	27.8 (14.0–50.0)	<0.0001
BMI 25 to < 30 kg/m^2	n = 540	15.2 (10.0–26.5)	18.3 (13.0–26.5)	0.002	23.2 (14.0–35.0)	29.6 (21.0–66.0)	0.002
BMI > 30 kg/m^2	n = 267	18.7 (12.5–25.5)	23.6 (16.0–39.0)	0.003	29.1 (18.0–40.0)	34.4 (23.0–58.0)	0.03

Table III. Age-adjusted Pearson correlation coefficients for bivariate associations between risk variables measured in 2001 and liver enzymes 6 years later.

	Men		Women
Variable 2001	Log-ALT	Log-GGT	Log-ALT	Log-GGT
MetS	0.26	0.21	0.13	0.20
Waist	0.37	0.36	0.28	0.33
BMI	0.34	0.32	0.29	0.33
Systolic blood pressure	0.17	0.16	0.11	0.11
Diastolic blood pressure	0.15	0.19	0.08^c	0.13
Total cholesterol	0.15	0.22	0.08^c	0.12
LDL cholesterol	0.11	0.17	0.09^c	0.09^c
HDL cholesterol	−0.19	−0.17	−0.06^b	−0.04^a
Log-Triglycerides	0.28	0.33	0.09	0.18
Glucose	0.11	0.07^b	0.05^b	0.07^b
Log-Insulin	0.30	0.25	0.19	0.24
Log-CRP	0.20	0.26	0.12	0.19
Alcohol intake	−0.01^a	0.06^a	0.05^a	0.13

All P values < 0.001 unless informed otherwise.

^aP > 0.12.

^bP < 0.05.

^cP < 0.01.

Table IV. Multivariable associations between risk variables in 2001 and liver enzymes in 2007. Values are standardized regression coefficients (expressed in U/I) for 1 SD change in explanatory variables.

	Log-ALT (2007)		Log-GGT (2007)
	Beta ± SE	P value	Beta ± SE	P value
Men:
MetS	0.320 ± 0.062	<0.0001	0.222 ± 0.067	<0.0001
Age	−0.003 ± 0.022	0.89	0.055 ± 0.023	0.02
LDL cholesterol	0.051 ± 0.020	0.01	0.088 ± 0.022	0.0009
Log-CRP	0.077 ± 0.023	0.01	0.128 ± 0.025	<0.0001
Alcohol intake	0.005 ± 0.017	0.78	0.041 ± 0.018	0.03
Log-Adiponectin	−0.080 ± 0.026	0.002	−0.110 ± 0.028	<0.0001
Women:
MetS	0.134 ± 0.059	0.02	0.236 ± 0.060	<0.0001
Age	0.012 ± 0.017	0.45	0.063 ± 0.017	<0.0001
LDL cholesterol	0.042 ± 0.018	0.02	0.041 ± 0.018	0.02
Log-CRP	0.040 ± 0.016	0.02	0.066 ± 0.016	<0.0001
Alcohol intake	0.049 ± 0.021	0.02	0.110 ± 0.022	<0.0001
Log-Adiponectin	−0.061 ± 0.018	0.0007	−0.073 ± 0.018	<0.0001

Figure 1. Age-and sex-adjusted mean and 95% confidence intervals for ALT activity in recovery group versus incident, persistent, and control group.

Table V. Multivariable cross-sectional association between liver enzymes and IMT in 2007.

	Model 1^a		Model 2^b
	β ± SE	P value	β ± SE	P value
ALT	0.015 ± 0.004	0.0005	0.008 ± 0.004	0.06
GGT	0.013 ± 0.004	0.002	0.006 ± 0.004	0.16

^aAdjusted for age, sex, and alcohol use.

^bFurther adjustment for MetS.