Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol is an independent risk factor associated with asymptomatic gallbladder stone disease in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease patients in northwest China: a case-control study

Abstract Background Non-Alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has previously been reported to be related to the incidence of gallbladder stone disease (GSD). This study was developed to identify key factors associated with the incidence of new-onset GSD among patients with NAFLD. Method Data pertaining to 610 patients with new-onset asymptomatic GSD and 610 healthy subjects between the ages of 30 and 80 undergoing routine annual check-ups were retrospectively analyzed. Clinicopathological variables including height, weight, blood pressure, serum lipids indexes, fasting blood glucose were compared in these patients, and the risk of GSD was compared between patients with and without NAFLD. Moreover, associations between body mass index (BMI), blood lipids, and GSD were assessed through multivariate logistic regression analyses. Results GSD incidence was found to be significantly higher among NAFLD patients as compared to patients without NAFLD (P < 0.001). Among individuals with NAFLD, BMI, waist circumference, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) levels, and triglyceride (TG) levels were all found to be significantly positively correlated with GSD (all P < 0.01), whereas a significant negative correlation between high-density lipoprotein (HDL-c) and GSD (P < 0.001) was observed in univariate analyses. In multivariate analyses, serum LDL-c was found to be significantly positively correlated with GSD incidence (P < 0.01), while BMI, serum TG, and HDL-c levels were negatively correlated with GSD incidence (all P < 0.01). Conclusions NAFLD is closely associated with the incidence of GSD and with related factors including obesity and dyslipidemia. These analyses suggest that serum LDL-c levels may be independently associated with the risk of GSD among individuals diagnosed with NAFLD, likely suggesting that improper drug treatment or pronounced reductions in TG levels may contribute to dysregulated cholesterol and fatty acid homeostasis in the context of hypertriglyceridemia in patients with NAFLD.