ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
The Relationship Between Triglyceride-Glucose Index, Triglyceride-Glucose-Body Mass Index, and the Severity of Hepatic Steatosis and Liver Fibrosis in Patients with MASLD: A Cross-Sectional Study
Provisionally accepted
Xingye Wu1Jiacheng Mo2Jinming Yu1Shisi Zhang1Dan Zheng1Xiaoying Chen1Ruibing Qi1Jiaqin Jiang1
Kun Ye3*
Zhengming Li1*- 1Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, People's Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning, China
- 2Information Network Management Center, the Health Governance and Smart Medical Engineering Research Center of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, People's Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning, China
- 3Guangxi Clinical Research Center for Chronic Kidney Disease, People's Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning, China
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Objective: This study aims to investigate the relationship between the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index and the triglyceride-glucose-body mass (TyG-BMI) index and the severity of hepatic steatosis and liver fibrosis in patients with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) , providing more accurate metabolic indicators for noninvasive screening. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on 7,035 subjects who completed Fibrotouch testing. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to assess the correlation between the TyG index and TyG-BMI index and the severity of hepatic steatosis (mild, moderate, severe) and hepatic fibrosis. Quartile grouping analysis and ROC curve assessment were also used to evaluate predictive performance. Results: After adjusting for potential confounding factors, both the TyG index and the TyG-BMI index were significantly positively correlated with the severity of MASLD (both p < 0.001). The association was stronger for TyG-BMI, with the highest quartile (Q4) having a 239.41-fold higher risk of hepatic steatosis compared to the lowest quartile (Q1) (OR = 239.41, 95% CI: 170.99–335.21). For liver fibrosis, only TyG-BMI maintained independent association (OR = 1.029, 95% CI: 1.025–1.033). ROC analysis showed that TyG-BMI had significantly better predictive performance for MASLD than TyG (AUC: 0.908 vs. 0.774). Conclusions: The TyG-BMI index is a strong predictor of MASLD severity and liver fibrosis, with predictive performance superior to that of the traditional TyG index. It can serve as an effective tool for clinical screening of high-risk populations for MASLD.
Keywords: Insulin Resistance, liver fibrosis, Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, Triglyceride-glucose index, Triglyceride-glucose-body mass index
Received: 05 Nov 2025; Accepted: 09 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Wu, Mo, Yu, Zhang, Zheng, Chen, Qi, Jiang, Ye and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Kun Ye
Zhengming Li
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