Association of sex hormones with hepatic steatosis in men with chronic hepatitis B

A B S T R A C T Background: No study on the relationship between hepatic steatosis and sex hormone levels in male patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection has been conducted.Aims: We aimed to investigate the association between serum sex hormones and hepatic steatosis among a cohort of males with CHB.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 268 male patients with CHB were enrolled. All participants under -went anthropometric measurement, blood testing, and FibroScan test. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the association of serum sex hormones with hepatic steatosis.Results: We included 137 males with and 131 without hepatic steatosis in this study. Subjects with serum testosterone (T) levels in the highest tertile had an odds ratio (OR) (95% confidence interval [CI]) of 0.35 (0.18-0.70) ( P for trend = 0.003); those with serum prolactin (PRL) levels in the highest tertile had an OR (95%CI) of 0.21 (0.10-0.45) ( P for trend < 0.001); and those with serum estradiol/testosterone (E2/T) in the highest tertile had an OR (95%CI) of 4.02 (1.97-8.20) ( P for trend < 0.001) for hepatic steatosis. Conclusion: Lower serum total T and PRL levels and higher total E2/T are independently associated with presence of hepatic steatosis in male patients with CHB.(c) 2021 Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.