The association between estimated glucose disposal rate and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease and liver fibrosis in US adults.

Background: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is the most common chronic liver disease, also considered a metabolic syndrome, and is associated with poor prognosis. eGDR (estimated glucose disposal rate) is a new biomarker to assessment insulin resistance (IR). The association between eGDR and MASLD and liver fibrosis is currently unclear.

Objective: The aim of this cross-sectional study is to appraise the association between eGDR and MASLD and liver fibrosis.

Methods: This study have enrolled 3,100 participants from the 2017-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES). Binary logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association between eGDR and MASLD and liver fibrosis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) was applied to estimate the ability of eGDR to identify MASLD.

Results: The mean age of the subjects was 54.59 (17.29) years, and 49.26% were female. The prevalence of MASLD and liver fibrosis was 62.19% and 11.15%, respectively. In the fully adjusted models, there were negative associations of eGDR with the controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) and liver stiffness measurement (LSM), with βs of -15.18 and - 0.74 (all p < 0.01), respectively. There were negative associations of eGDR with MASLD and liver fibrosis, with odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals of 0.53 (95% CI: 0.48-0.74) and 0.40 (95% CI: 0.28-0.57) (all p < 0.01). The area under the curve (AUC) of the eGDR for identifying MASLD and liver fibrosis is 0.74 and 0.75, respectively.

Conclusion: The study findings suggest a significant association between eGDR and MASLD as well as liver fibrosis. eGDR may serve as a biomarker for identifying MASLD.