Assessment of skeletal muscle alterations and circulating myokines in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: A cross-sectional study

Table 1 Characteristics of the study population according to the stage of liver fibrosis assessed with transient elastography (n = 62), mean ± standard deviation/n (%)

Characteristics	F0-F2 (n = 44)	F3-F4 (n = 18)	P value
Age (years)	59.36 ± 11.36	63.17 ± 10.81	0.230
Men	23 (56.1)	11 (61.1)	0.780
Caucasian race	42 (95.4)	17 (94.4)	0.957
Body mass index (kg/m2)	32.32 ± 4.49	30.72 ± 4.30	0.203
Arterial hypertension	13 (29.5)	7 (38.9)	0.557
Diabetes	16 (39.0)	10 (55.6)	0.257
Glucose (mg/dL)	93.4 ± 17.5	99.2 ± 19.1	0.473
Insulin (μU/L)	12.5 ± 6.1	14.2 ± 3.5	0.235
HOMA-IR score	5.16 ± 3.12	5.27 ± 3.95	0.909
Triglycerides (mg/dL)	108.3 ± 51.4	143.1 ± 64.6	0.097
HDL-cholesterol (mg/dL)	49.5 ± 10.9	44.7 ± 12.3	0.479
ALT (IU/L)	17.1 ± 6.8	29.3 ± 5.7	0.137
AST (IU/L)	14.5 ± 4.4	24.1 ± 6.2	0.151
-GT (IU/L)	30.8 ± 29.1	36.5 ± 24.8	0.324
Ferritin (ng/mL)	65.1 ± 69.1	82.5 ± 50.6	0.079
CAP (dB/m)	323.64 ± 48.35	327.50 ± 31.49	0.756
Liver elastography (kPa)	6.01 ± 1.67	15.35 ± 7.36	< 0.001
Hand grip strength (kg)
Men	33.62 ± 6.02	32.19 ± 5.45	0.523
Women	20.18 ± 4.69	17.00 ± 2.15	0.100
ASMM (kg)	22.66 ± 5.21	22.44 ± 6.20	0.887
LFI (a.u)	3.94 ± 0.43	4.11 ± 0.39	0.173
Robust	2 (4.5)	0 (0)
Pre-fragile	36 (81.8)	14 (71.8)
Fragile	4 (9.1)	3 (16.7)
Peritoneal adipose tissue (cm2)	0.84 ± 0.41	0.98 ± 0.64	0.334
Fat mass (%)	34.89 ± 8.53	32.53 ± 6.43	0.296
Skeletal muscle mass (%)	28.92 ± 5.92	30.67 ± 5.81	0.293
Skeletal muscle index (kg/m2)	9.34 ± 1.80	9.59 ± 1.84	0.633

ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; ASMM: Appendicular skeletal muscle mass; AST: Aspartate aminotransferase; CAP: Controlled attenuation parameter; F0-F2: Lower stages of liver fibrosis; F3-F4: Higher stages of liver fibrosis; HDL: High-density lipoprotein; HOMA-IR: Homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance; γ-GT: γ-glutamyl transpeptidase; LFI: Liver frailty index.