Muscle mass and cellular membrane integrity assessment in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease

SUMMARY OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between muscle mass depletion and compromising of the cell membrane integrity and clinical-anthropometric characteristics in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. METHODS: This observational study evaluated waist circumference, body mass index, and waist-to-height ratio in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Skeletal mass index corrected by weight and impairment of cell membrane integrity were assessed using bioelectrical impedance analysis. RESULTS: In 56 patients, muscle mass depletion was observed in 62.5% and cell membrane impairment in 28.6%. The metabolic syndrome and elevated aspartate aminotransferase were the only clinical factors associated with mass depletion (p<0.05). The linear regression analysis showed association between skeletal mass index and waist-to-height ratio and waist circumference, after adjustments (p<0.05). The phase angle value was not different between those with and without mass depletion, and also it did not have correlation with skeletal mass index and clinical parameters (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of mass depletion and cell membrane impairment was higher in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. The muscle mass depletion was associated with central obesity, aspartate aminotransferase elevated, and metabolic syndrome; however, the phase angle is not associated with clinical and anthropometric data.

Iodine nutritional status in Brazil: a meta-analysis of all studies performed in the country pinpoints to an insufficient evaluation and heterogeneity

Objectives Iodine deficiency disorder (IDD) is the result of an inadequate dietary intake of iodine, which physiological consequences are endemic goiter and thyroid dysfunction. The objective of this study was to a analyze studies that assessed the status of Brazil’s population iodine nutrition and IDD prevalence. Materials and methods Systematic review using PRISMA statement. Electronic database: PubMed, Medline, SciELO and Lilacs. Quality of studies: Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Meta-analysis was carried out with R Core Team Statistical Software, version 3.1.0 (2014). The summary measure (WMD) and its confidence interval (CI) of 95% were calculated. The “Funnel plot” graph assessed publication bias and heterogeneity. Results Seventeen papers were eligible: pregnant women (2), school children (9), adults/elderly (4) and preschool children/infants (2). Geographic distribution: North (1), Northeast (1), Midwest (2), Southeast (13), South (3). Twenty-three thousand two hundred seventy-two subjects were evaluated between 1997 and 2013 and all have use urinary iodine (UI) measurement. However, only 7 studies could be included in meta-analysis, all from Southeast region. The overall prevalence of IDD in school children in southeast region was 15.3% (95% CI, 13-35%), however this data had an important heterogeneity, expressed by the I2 Statistic of 99.5%. Conclusion Only few studies have been performed and enrolled populations from south/southeast region of Brazil. The actual IDD prevalence analysis is complex because it was detected bias due influence of individual studies and very high heterogeneity. IDD might still be high in some areas but this remained unknown even after this meta-analysis evaluation. The generation of a national program for analysis of iodine status in all regions is urgently required. Arch Endocrinol Metab. 2015;59(1):13-22 .