Table 1 Clinical characteristics of study population. Mean ± SD or median (IQR) or frequencies n (%) are shown with p-values for the group differences based on Welch’s t-test (a), Mann-Whitney U test (b), chi-square test (c) or Fisher’s exact test (d)

gender (male)

11 (55%)

39 (72.2%)

0.98^c

Age (years)

48.9 ± 11.8

51.3 ± 15.0

0.47^a

Type II diabetes mellitus

0 (0%)

6 (11.1%)

0.18^d

BMI

kg/m²

24.4 ± 2.9

26.0 ± 3.4

0.05^a

Cholesterol

mg/dl

186.6 ± 35.5

188.0 ± 38.3

0.89^a

HDL

> 40 mg/dl

60.0 ± 17.3

55.3 ± 19.2

0.34^a

LDL

< 160 mg/dl

109.4 ± 31.1

111.7 ± 26.8

0.79^a

Triglycerides

< 150 mg/dl

74.0 (48.0)

103.5 (83.0)

0.01^b

Albumin

30–50 g/l

44.6 ± 1.5

44.8 ± 2.6

0.75^a

Bilirubin

< 1.0 mg/dl

0.6 (0.2)

0.8 (0.6)

0.38^b

GGT

< 60 U/l

12.5 (18.5)

23.0 (30.3)

0.001^b

AST

< 46 U/l

22.0 (14.0)

29.0 (19.5)

0.01^b

ALT

< 50 U/l

25.0 (8.0)

26.0 (17.5)

0.25^b

PT

70–125%

101.9 ± 11.0

98.6 ± 16.2

0.32^a

Ferritin

30–300 μg/l

133.0 (150.5)

261.0 (731.3)

0.02^b

Transferrin

2.0–3.6 g/l

2.1 ± 0.3

1.8 ± 0.3

< 0.0001^a

TS

16–45%

26.0 ± 9.6

70.1 ± 24.9

< 0.0001^a

Iron

14–32 μmol/l

13.5 ± 4.7

31.8 ± 10.2

< 0.0001^a

Hepatic steatosis

none

18 (90%)

16 (29.6%)

< 0.0001^c

mild

0 (0%)

18 (33.3%)

moderate

2 (10%)

12 (22.2%)

severe

0 (0%)

5 (9.3%)

FibroScan

< 6 kPa

–

6.7 ± 4.8

–

HFE-genotype

C282Y

–

54 (100%)

–

PNPLA3genotype

CC

–

26 (48.2%)

–

CG

–

24 (44.4%)

–

GG

–

4 (7.4%)

–