The correlation between pancreatic steatosis and metabolic syndrome in a Chinese population.

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity and hepatic steatosis showed a strong correlation with metabolic syndrome. However, data on the influence of pancreatic steatosis on metabolic syndrome are lacking.

Objective: Our aim is to perform the prevalence of pancreatic steatosis in adults and its association with metabolic syndrome in a Chinese population.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study, randomly selected. A total of 1190 health examination subjects were recruited. Pancreatic steatosis or hepatic steatosis was diagnosed via trans-abdominal sonography. The clinical and metabolic parameters were compared between the two groups, and their associations with pancreatic steatosis were examined.

Results: The prevalence of pancreatic steatosis was 30.7%. The presence of pancreatic steatosis was significantly increased by age, gender, central obesity, hepatic steatosis, hypertriglyceridemia and hyperglycemia. In the logistic regression analysis, age (P < 0.05), central obesity (P < 0.01), diabetes (P < 0.05), hypertriglyceridemia (P < 0.05) and hepatic steatosis (P < 0.01) were independently associated with pancreatic steatosis. The number of the parameters of the metabolic syndrome in pancreatic steatosis group was more than that in non-pancreatic steatosis group [(2.5 ± 1.1) vs (1.4 ± 1.2)] (P < 0.01).

Conclusion: The pancreatic steatosis is strongly associated with the parameters of metabolic syndrome, such as central obesity, diabetes, and hepatic steatosis.