Computed tomography assessment of pancreatic steatosis in association with anthropometric measurements: A retrospective cohort study

Abstract

Aim: Pancreatic steatosis is the fat accumulation in the pancreatic parenchyma. It is suggested that pancreatic fat infiltration may play an important role in the prognosis of diseases such as diabetes, malignancy and pancreatitis, leading to some inflammatory processes and fibrosis, and may even play an etiological role in the progress of pancreas-related diseases. However, a limited number of studies on pancreatic steatosis are available in the literature.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relation of pancreatic steatosis with age, sex, hepatic steatosis, subcutaneous fat tissue and visceral fat tissue thickness.

Methods: Hundred patients without a history of previously known pancreas disease or diabetes mellitus were included in the study. All patients had gone under abdominal tomography scan for a suspected kidney stone. Pancreas density, visceral and subcutaneous fat tissue thickness were reviewed retrospectively. The presence of coexisting hepatosteatosis was investigated.

Results: Pancreatic steatosis was detected in 54% of 100 cases examined.  There were no significant difference between the pancreatic steatosis and normal pancreas groups in terms of gender and subcutaneous fat tissue thickness (p=0.115 and p=0.511, respectively). Pancreatic steatosis increased significantly with increasing age and visceral fat tissue thickness (p=0.001 and p = 0.001, respectively). The incidence of hepatic steatosis was 42% in patients with pancreatic steatosis.

Conclusion: According to our results, pancreatic steatosis increases with age and increased visceral fat tissue thickness. Thus, elderly patients with increased visceral fat tissue must be investigated for pancreatic steatosis.

Keywords

• pancreas,steatosis,visceral,subcutaneous

Pankreatik steatozun antropometrik ölçümler ile ilişkisinin bilgisayarlı tomografi değerlendirmesi: Retrospektif kohort çalışma

Öz

Amaç: Pankreatik yağlanma, pankreas parankiminde yağ birikimidir. Bazı inflamatuar süreçlere ve fibrozise yol açarak diyabet, malignite, pankreatit gibi hastalıkların prognozunda etkili olabileceği ve hatta pankreasla ilgili hastalıkların gelişiminde etiyolojik rol oynayabileceği öne sürülmektedir. Pankreatik yağ birikiminin yaşla, cinsiyetle ve obeziteyle artış gösterdiği düşünülmektedir.  Ancak literatürde pankreas yağlanması ile ilgili sınırlı sayıda çalışma mevcuttur.

Bu çalışmada pankreas yağlanmasının; yaş, cinsiyet, subkutan yağ doku kalınlığı, visseral yağ doku kalınlığı ve hepatosteatoz ile ilişkisini araştırmak amaçlandı.

Yöntemler: Araştırmaya; bilinen pankreas hastalığı ve diabetes mellitus öyküsü bulunmayan, üriner sistem taşı araştırılması amacıyla tomografi incelemesi yapılan 100 olgu dahil edildi. Retrospektif olarak yeniden değerlendirilen tomografi görüntüleri üzerinden pankreas parankim dansitesi, visseral ve subkutan yağ doku kalınlıkları ölçüldü. Eşlik eden hepatosteatoz varlığı araştırıldı.

Bulgular: Çalışmaya dahil edilen 100 olgunun %54’ünde pankreatik yağlanma saptandı. Pankreatik yağlanma olan ve olmayan olgular karşılaştırıldığında; cinsiyet ve subkutan yağ doku kalınlığı açısından fark yoktu (sırası ile p=0,115 ve p=0,511). Pankreas yağlanması yaş ve visseral yağ doku kalınlığı arttıkça istatistiksel olarak anlamlı şekilde artmıştı (sırası  ile p=0,001ve p = 0,001). Pankreatik yağlanması olan olgularda karaciğer yağlanması insidansı %42 olarak bulundu.

Sonuç:  Bulgularımıza göre; yaş ve visseral yağ doku kalınlığı arttıkça pankreas yağlanması da artış göstermiştir. Bu nedenle visseral yağ doku kalınlığı artmış, ileri yaştaki olgular pankreas yağlanması açısından da araştırılmalıdır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• pankreas,yağlanma,visseral,subkutan,yağ doku

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