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The ZJU index is a powerful index for identifying NAFLD in the general Chinese population

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A Letter to the Editor to this article was published on 12 October 2019

A Correction to this article was published on 26 September 2019

This article has been updated

Abstract

Aims

The ZJU index is a novel model for detecting non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) that it is calculated based on combination of the body mass index, fasting plasma glucose, triglycerides, and the serum alanine aminotransferase-to-aspartate transaminase ratio. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the ZJU index in detecting NAFLD in the Chinese population.

Methods

This was a cross-sectional study. Anthropometric measurements, laboratory data, and ultrasonography features were collected through a standard protocol. The ZJU index, fatty liver index, hepatic steatosis index, lipid accumulation product, and visceral adiposity index were calculated. Then the predictive values of the five indices were compared according to the area under receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUROC) values.

Results

A total of 19,804 participants were recruited, of whom 7324 participants were diagnosed with NFALD and 12,480 subjects were regarded as controls. The AUROC value for NAFLD identification by the ZJU index was 0.925 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.919–0.931), which was significantly higher than the values for the other four models (P < 0.001). Furthermore, from age 31 years to >60 years, the AUROC for the ZJU increased from 87.1 to 95.4%, values which were also greater than those for the other four indices. Analysis by sex also showed that the performance of the ZJU index in males and females was better than that of the other four indices.

Conclusions

The ZJU index is an accurate and easy to employ tool for identifying NAFLD in the general Chinese population.

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Change history

  • 26 September 2019

    In paragraph Index calculation formulae

  • 26 September 2019

    In paragraph Index calculation formulae

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Examination, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400016, People’s Republic of China

    Linman Li

  2. Infectious Diseases Department, The People’s Hospital of Yubei, District of Chongqing city, Chongqing, 401120, People’s Republic of China

    Wenyi You

  3. Department of Endocrinology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, 400016, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Ren

Authors
  1. Linman Li
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  2. Wenyi You
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  3. Wei Ren
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Correspondence to Linman Li.

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Conflict of interest

Linman Li, Wenyi You, and Wei Ren declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and animal rights disclosure

All procedures involving human participants were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University and with the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Managed by Antonio Secchi.

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Li, L., You, W. & Ren, W. The ZJU index is a powerful index for identifying NAFLD in the general Chinese population. Acta Diabetol 54, 905–911 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00592-017-1024-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00592-017-1024-8

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