Endocrine Abstracts

JOINT3440

Introduction: The incidence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has reached approximately 20-30% in recent years, with obesity, insulin resistance, and lipid metabolism disorders being the main risk factors. NAFLD can present in various stages, ranging from simple steatosis to fibrosis. In most cases, assessing fibrosis requires a liver biopsy. The FIB-4 index is a recently developed non-invasive tool that helps identify patients with significant fibrosis using age, AST, ALT, and blood platelet count, improving accessibility for diagnosing liver fibrosis.

Objective: To determine the degree of liver fibrosis measured by the FIB-4 index in patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) at the start of subcutaneous semaglutide treatment and compare it six months after initiation.

MaterialS and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on 250 patients with T2DM treated at the Endocrinology and Nutrition Department of Virgen de las Nieves Hospital in Granada, who started subcutaneous semaglutide treatment. Follow-up was carried out for approximately six months. Anthropometric (BMI) and laboratory data were collected, including HbA1c (%), triglycerides (mg/dL), ALT (U/l), AST (U/l), and FIB-4 score. The FIB-4 score was classified into three risk categories: low (<1.36), intermediate or gray zone (1.36-2.67), and high (>2.67). Data obtained at baseline and six months later were analyzed using the Jamovi statistical software, applying the paired t-test with a per-protocol approach.

Results: Of the total patients, comparable FIB-4 values before and after the intervention were obtained in 64 patients, with a mean age of 58 years and a female representation of 43%. As shown in Table 1, a significant reduction was observed in BMI (P = 0.03), HbA1c (P< 0.001), triglycerides (P = 0.001), ALT (P< 0.001), and AST (P = 0.003). The FIB-4 score showed a trend towards reduction, but it did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.155) after six months of semaglutide treatment.

Conclusion: Subcutaneous semaglutide as a treatment for T2DM significantly reduced several metabolic and hepatic parameters after six months; however, the decrease in the FIB-4 index was not statistically significant.