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Although there is evidence that Asian Indians, Polynesians and Europeans differ in their body fat (BF)–BMI relationships, detailed comparative analysis of their underlying body composition and build characteristics is lacking. We investigated differences in the relationships between body fatness and BMI, fat distribution, muscularity, bone mineral mass, leg length and age-related changes in body composition between these ethnic groups. Cross-sectional analysis of 933 European, Maori, Pacific Island and Asian Indian adult volunteers was performed for total and percentage of BF, abdominal fat, thigh fat, appendicular muscle mass, bone mineral content and leg length measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Asian Indian men and women (BMI of 24 and 26 kg/m2, respectively) had the same percentage of BF as Europeans with a BMI of 30 kg/m2 or Pacific men and women with BMI of 34 and 35 kg/m2, respectively. Asian Indians had more fat, both total and in the abdominal region, with less lean mass, skeletal muscle and bone mineral than all other ethnic groups. Leg length was relatively longer in Pacific men and Asian and Pacific women than in other ethnic groups. In Asian Indians, abdominal fat increased with increasing age, while the percentage of BF showed little change. In the other ethnic groups, both abdominal and total BF increased with age. In conclusion, ethnic differences in fat distribution, muscularity, bone mass and leg length may contribute to ethnic-specific relationships between body fatness and BMI. The use of universal BMI cut-off points may not be appropriate for the comparison of obesity prevalence between ethnic groups.

Bariatric surgery is effective in the management of type 2 diabetes (T2D) and obesity; however, it is not clear whether Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (GBP) or sleeve gastrectomy (SG) is the most effective procedure. This review compared T2D remission and weight loss in patients with T2D after GBP or SG. All human SG or GBP studies published in English between 1 Jan 2007 and 30 April 2012 reporting on BMI and T2D outcomes were included. Analyses were performed separately for the most frequent distinct time points reported after surgery. A total of 21 prospective (three randomised control trials) and 12 retrospective studies, involving 1375 patients met eligibility criteria. T2D remission defined by hemoglobin A1 c of <6.5 % for GBP and SG respectively was 67 and 56 % at 3 months, 76 and 68 % at 12 months, and 81 and 80 % at 36 months. Greater percent excess BMI loss occurred at 12 months (72.5 % after GBP and 66.7 % after SG) compared with 3 months (45.9 % after GBP and 25.9 % after SG). There was no significant difference in either T2D remission or weight loss with GBP compared with SG. Both GBP and SG result in similar early remission of T2D in 67 and 56 % of patients at 3 months respectively with modest additional T2D remission with time, although weight loss with both procedures increase substantially between 3 and 12 months post-operatively. Further randomised controlled trials comparing SG and GBP in patients with T2D using comparable definitions of diabetes remission with long-term follow-up are needed to evaluate relative benefits.

The Pacific Islands Families (PIF) study is a birth cohort study designed to increase knowledge about the growth and development of Pacific children living in Auckland, New Zealand. Adolescence is a critical time of growth and development, yet the roles of physical function and body composition in metabolic health at this life stage are not clear. We aimed to investigate associations between measures of physical function (the 6-minute-walk-test (6MWT)), heart rate changes before and after the 6MWT, handgrip strength, body composition including appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASMM) measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and biomarkers of metabolic health from a fasting blood sample.A total of 200 youth (98 girls, 102 boys) aged 14–15 years, from the birth-cohort of children in the Pacific Islands families study were measured. In girls, the proportion of ASMM was lower and fat higher than in boys. Controlling for age, a 1% increase in ASMM predicted a longer walk distance (+6.3, 95%CI 2.2, 10.4 m in girls; +7.1, 95%CI 4.4, 9.1 m in boys) and lower heart rate following the 6MWT. ASMM and fat mass were independently predictive of maximal handgrip strength which was increased by 1.4 (1.0,1.8) kg in girls and 1.7 (1.3, 2.0) kg in boys for each kg increase in ASMM and reduced by 0.23 (0.08, 0.38) kg in girls and 0.26 (0.14, 0.37) kg in boys for each kg increase in fat mass. Lower total cholesterol and LDL were associated with an increase in distance walked in boys only. For each year of age, distance walked was reduced by 34 (15, 53) m in girls and 59 (36,84) m in boys. These findings should be explored further in the context of other influences such as food security, opportunities for physical activity and cultural expectations.

Data on the trends in the prevalence of chronic liver disease (CLD) in Korea are scarce. This study aimed to evaluate whether the CLD prevalence changed between 1998–2001 and 2016–2017. Data were extracted from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1998–2001 to 2016–2017; n=25,893). Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) was defined as a hepatic steatosis index >36 in the absence of any other evidence of CLD. The definition of alcoholrelated liver disease (ALD) was excessive alcohol consumption (≥210 g/week for men and ≥140 g/week for women) and an ALD/NAFLD index >0. The prevalence of NAFLD increased from 18.6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 17.8–19.5%) in 1998–2001 to 21.5% (95% CI, 20.6–22.6%) in 2016–2017. During the same time period, increases were observed in the prevalence of obesity (27.0 vs. 35.1%), central obesity (29.4 vs. 36.0%), diabetes (7.5 vs. 10.6%), and excessive drinking (7.3 vs. 10.5%). ALD prevalence also increased from 3.8% (95% CI, 3.4–4.2%) to 7.0% (95% CI, 6.4–7.6%). In contrast, chronic hepatitis B decreased from 5.1% (95% CI, 4.6–5.5%) to 3.4% (95% CI, 3.0–3.8%). The prevalence of chronic hepatitis C was approximately 0.3% in 2016–2017. The prevalence of NAFLD and ALD increase among Korean adults. Our results suggest potential targets for interventions to reduce the future burden of CLD.

Background Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a clustering of metabolic risk factors, including large waist circumference (WC). Other anthropometric parameters and visceral fat mass (VFM) predicted from these may improve MetS detection. Our aim was to assess the ability of such parameters to predict this clustering in a cross-sectional, diagnostic study. Method Participants were 82 males and 86 females, aged 20–74 years, of Asian Indian ethnicity. VFM was estimated by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) through identification of abdominal subcutaneous fat layer boundaries. Non-anthropometric metabolic risk factors (triglycerides, HDL cholesterol, blood pressure and glucose) were defined using MetS criteria. We estimated the ability of anthropometry and VFM to detect ≥ 2 of these factors by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) and precision-recall curves. Results Two or more non-anthropometric metabolic risk factors were present in 45 (55%) males and 29 (34%) females. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) to predict ≥ 2 of these factors using WC was 0.67 (95% confidence interval: 0.55–0.79) in males and 0.65 (0.53–0.77) in females. Optimal WC cut-points were 92 cm for males (63% accuracy) and 79 cm for females (53% accuracy). VFM, DXA-measured sagittal diameter and suprailiac skinfold thickness yielded higher AUC point estimates (by up to 0.06), especially in females where these measures improved accuracy to 69%, 69% and 65%, respectively. Pairwise combinations that included WC further improved accuracy. Conclusion Our findings indicate that cut-points for readily obtained measures other than WC, or in combination with WC, may provide improved detection of MetS risk factor clusters.

While there is an emerging role of pancreatic fat in the aetiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), its impact on the associated decrease in insulin secretion remains controversial. We aimed to determine whether pancreatic fat negatively affects [beta]-cell function and insulin secretion in women with overweight or obesity but without T2DM. 20 women, with normo- or dysglycaemia based on fasting plasma glucose levels, and low (< 4.5%) vs high ([greater than or equal to] 4.5%) magnetic resonance (MR) quantified pancreatic fat, completed a 1-hr intravenous glucose tolerance test (ivGTT) which included two consecutive 30-min square-wave steps of hyperglycaemia generated by using 25% dextrose. Plasma glucose, insulin and C-peptide were measured, and insulin secretion rate (ISR) calculated using regularisation deconvolution method from C-peptide kinetics. Repeated measures linear mixed models, adjusted for ethnicity and baseline analyte concentrations, were used to compare changes during the ivGTT between high and low percentage pancreatic fat (PPF) groups. No ethnic differences in anthropomorphic variables, body composition, visceral adipose tissue (MR-VAT) or PPF were measured and hence data were combined. Nine women (47%) were identified as having high PPF values. PPF was significantly associated with baseline C-peptide (p = 0.04) and ISR (p = 0.04) in all. During the 1-hr ivGTT, plasma glucose (p<0.0001), insulin (p 0.05). Notably, the incremental areas under the curves for both first and second phase ISR were 0.04 units lower in the high than low PPF groups, but this was not significant (p > 0.05). In women with overweight or obesity but without T2DM, PPF did not modify [beta]-cell function as determined by ivGTT-assessed ISR. However, the salient feature in biphasic insulin secretion in those with [greater than or equal to]4.5% PPF may be of clinical importance, particularly in early stages of dysglycaemia may warrant further investigation.

Background Asian Chinese are more susceptible to deposition of visceral adipose tissue (VAT) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) development than European Caucasians when matched for gender, age and body mass index (BMI). Our aims were: (i) characterise the ethnicity-specific metabolomic signature of visceral adiposity measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) and fasting plasma glucose (FPG), and (ii) identify individuals susceptible to worse metabolic health outcomes. Methods Fasting plasma samples from normoglycaemic (n = 274) and prediabetic (n = 83) participants were analysed with liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry using untargeted metabolomics. Multiple linear regression adjusting for age, gender and BMI was performed to identify metabolites associated with FPG and VAT calculated as percentage of total body fat (%VAT TBF ) in each ethnic group. Metabolic risk groups in each ethnicity were stratified based on the joint metabolomic signature for FPG and %VAT TBF and clinically characterised using partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and t-tests. Results FPG was correlated with 40 and 110 metabolites in Caucasians and Chinese respectively, with diglyceride DG(38:5) (adjusted β = 0.29, p  = 3.00E−05) in Caucasians and triglyceride TG(54:4) (adjusted β = 0.28, p  = 2.02E−07) in Chinese being the most significantly correlated metabolite based on the p-value. %VAT TBF was correlated with 85 and 119 metabolites in Caucasians and Chinese respectively, with TG(56:2) (adjusted β = 0.3, p  = 8.25E−09) in Caucasians and TG(58:3) (adjusted β = 0.25, p  = 2.34E−08) in Chinese being the most significantly correlated. 24 metabolites associated with FPG were common to both ethnicities including glycerolipid species. 67 metabolites associated with %VAT TBF were common to both ethnicities including positive correlations with dihydroceramide, sphingomyelin, glycerolipid, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethnolamine, and inverse correlations with ether-linked phosphatidylcholine. Participant re-stratification found greater total and central adiposity, worse clinical lipid profiles, higher serum glucoregulatory peptides and liver enzymes in normal fasting glucose (NFG) individuals with a prediabetic metabolomic profile than NFG individuals with a normoglycaemic metabolomic profile in both ethnicities. Conclusions Untargeted metabolomics identified common and disparate metabolites associated with FPG and %VAT TBF , with an ethnic-dimorphic signature for these metabolic traits. These signatures could improve risk stratification and identify NFG individuals with an adverse cardiometabolic and T2D risk profile.

Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for men with prostate cancer (PCa) results in accelerated bone loss and increased risk of bone fracture. The aim of the present study was to evaluate serum bone markers—sclerostin, Dickkopf-1 (DKK-1) and osteoprotegerin (OPG), in a cohort of 88 PCa patients without known bone metastases, managed with and without ADT, and to analyse their relationship with bone mineral density (BMD) and sex steroids. The cross-sectional analysis between acute-, chronic- and former-ADT groups and PCa controls showed that sclerostin and OPG levels significantly differed between them ( p  = 0.029 and p  = 0.032). Groups contributing to these significant changes were recorded. There were no significant differences in serum DKK-1 levels across the four groups ( p  = 0.683). In the longitudinal analysis, significant % decreases within groups were seen for DKK-1 [chronic-ADT (− 10.06%, p  = 0.0057), former-ADT (− 12.77%, p  = 0.0239), and in PCa controls group (− 16.73, p  = 0.0022); and OPG levels in chronic ADT (− 8.28%, p  = 0.003) and PCa controls group (− 12.82%, p  = 0.017)]. However, % changes in sclerostin, DKK-1, and OPG did not differ significantly over 6-months across the evaluated groups. Sclerostin levels showed significant positive correlations with BMD at baseline in the ADT group, while in PCa controls this correlation existed at both baseline and 6-month time points. Sclerostin correlated negatively with testosterone in former ADT users and in PCa controls. Possible prognostic features denoted by parallel increases in sclerostin and BMD are discussed.

A subgroup of cirrhotic patients develop hypermetabolism, possibly mediated by increased sympathetic nervous system activity and increased cardiac output. The effect of hypermetabolism on prognosis in patients with cirrhosis has not been elucidated. Resting energy expenditure (REE) was measured using indirect calorimetry in 256 cirrhotic patients with different etiologies and disease severity (165 men, 91 women; median age 49 y, age range 16–73 y; median model for end-stage liver disease [MELD] score 13, range 6–36; median Child-Pugh score 8, range 5–15). Measured and predicted values were compared using equations based on fat-free mass, total body protein (measured by neutron activation analysis), and the Harris-Benedict equations. Competing-risks Cox’s proportional hazards analysis was performed to evaluate the influence of hypermetabolism and MELD or Child-Pugh scores on risk of death or liver transplantation. Median follow-up was 49 mo (range 1–90 mo). Hypermetabolic patients had decreased transplant-free survival compared with non-hypermetabolic patients (9.7 versus 31.8 mo, P = 0.05). Increased REE, even within the normal range, was also associated with worse transplant-free survival ( P = 0.001). Hypermetabolism was predictive of transplant-free survival independent of MELD and Child-Pugh scores (hazard ratio 1.19, 95% confidence interval 1.08–1.32, P = 0.0008; hazard ratio 1.13, 95% confidence interval 1.10–1.16, P < 0.0001; hazard ratio 1.38, 95% confidence interval 1.29–1.48, P < 0.0001; respectively). Patients on β-blockers were more likely to be normometabolic ( P = 0.035). We found an inverse relation between REE and transplant-free survival in a large heterogeneous group of cirrhotic patients.

Background/objectivesThe purpose of this study was to examine the association between muscle weakness and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and whether the association is partly explained by insulin resistance or inflammation.Subjects/methodsSubjects were 3922 adults who participated in the 2015 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Relative grip strength (rGS; calculated as maximal grip strength divided by BMI) was used to predict NAFLD defined by NAFLD liver fat score. Participants were classified into four groups according to the quartiles of rGS distribution (Q1–Q4). Insulin resistance was assessed by triglycerides and glucose (TyG) index. Inflammation was measured with C-reactive protein (CRP). Fibrosis was assessed by the Fibrosis-4 index (FIB-4) and the NAFLD fibrosis score.ResultsrGS had significant negative associations with TyG index and CRP (all p < 0.001). rGS was a significant predictor of NAFLD (OR, 0.54–0.19 in Q2–Q4 men; OR, 0.54–0.08 in Q2–Q4 women, all p < 0.001). Adjustment for other participant factors did not substantially affect the results. Addition of TyG index changed the estimates for NAFLD slightly and addition of CRP increased the ORs by 10–20% in Q3–Q4 women. In the subpopulation with NAFLD (n = 946), rGS showed strong inverse relationships with FIB-4 and NAFLD fibrosis score (all p < 0.001).ConclusionsGrip strength was inversely associated not only with the risk of NAFLD but also with its severity. Insulin resistance and inflammation explained only a small portion of the association between grip strength and NAFLD risk.