Determinants of Pancreatic Steatosis: A Retrospective Observational Study

Metabolic syndrome affects 35% of the adult population in developed countries associated with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular events. Fatty infiltration of the pancreas, or pancreatic steatosis, is a risk factor for acute pancreatitis, pancreatic malignancies, and diabetes mellitus, yet its relationship with metabolic syndrome is not well defined.

We performed a single-centered retrospective observational study of 322 healthy subjects (subjects volunteering to be kidney transplant donors, mean age=46.3±13.5, 163 men and 159 women) in the last 2 years (July 2018-February 2020) from our institution. Pancreatic steatosis and hepatosteatosis were confirmed by computed tomography.

Pancreatic steatosis was present in 26.3% (85/322) of the subjects, and this finding correlated with age, body mass index (BMI), male sex, a family history of diabetes, creatinine, cystatin C, uric acid, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, triglycerides, glycemia, hemoglobin, transverse body diameter, and subcutaneous fat thickness levels by univariable logistic regression. On multiple linear regression only age (95% CI 1.01, 1.06), BMI (95% CI 1.01, 1.19), male sex (95% CI 1.49-5.99), uric acid (95% CI 1.01, 1.76), and subcutaneous fat thickness levels (95% CI 1.21-2.36) remained independently associated with pancreatic steatosis.

Pancreatic steatosis is common and associated with obesity, elevated serum uric acid, subcutaneous fat thickness, and male sex. Future studies are needed to evaluate if there are specific clinical consequences to the presence of pancreatic steatosis.