Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Feb 28, 2017; 9(6): 326-332
Published online Feb 28, 2017. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v9.i6.326
Sarcopenia and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: Is there a relationship? A systematic review
Cristiane V Tovo, Sabrina A Fernandes, Caroline Buss, Angelo A de Mattos
Cristiane V Tovo, Sabrina A Fernandes, Caroline Buss, Angelo A de Mattos, Postgraduate Program at Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, RS 90430-080, Brazil
Cristiane V Tovo, Angelo A de Mattos, Clinical Medicine Department at Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, RS 90430-080, Brazil
Sabrina A Fernandes, PostGraduate Program in Bioscience and Rehabilitation and the PostGraduate Program in Rehabilitation and Inclusion, Methodist University - IPA, Porto Alegre, RS 90420-060, Brazil
Caroline Buss, Nutrition Department at Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, RS 90430-080, Brazil
Author contributions: Tovo CV and Fernandes SA perfomed the data collection; all the authors wrote the paper and approved the final version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Data sharing statement: All available data can be obtained by contacting the corresponding author.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Cristiane V Tovo, MD, PhD, Postgraduate Program at Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, Rua Cel Aurelio Bitencourt 115 apto 201, Porto Alegre, RS 90430-080, Brazil. cris.tovo@terra.com.br
Telephone: +55-51-32148158 Fax: +55-51-32148158
Received: September 7, 2016
Peer-review started: September 9, 2016
First decision: October 20, 2016
Revised: January 3, 2017
Accepted: February 8, 2017
Article in press: February 13, 2017
Published online: February 28, 2017
Processing time: 172 Days and 9.6 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: The aim of the present study was to perform a systematic review evaluating the incidence and prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in adult patients with sarcopenia. Randomized clinical trials, cross-sectional or cohort studies including adult patients (over 18 years) with sarcopenia were selected. The primary outcomes of interest were the prevalence or incidence of NAFLD in sarcopenic patients, and three cross-sectional studies were finally included. There was an independent association between sarcopenia and NAFLD in all the studies. In conclusion, sarcopenia is independently associated with NAFLD and possibly to an advanced fibrosis.