Evaluation of the lipid accumulation product for MASLD risk stratification in type 2 diabetes: establishing sex-specific thresholds and clinical utility.

BACKGROUND

While visceral adiposity and lipid dysregulation are established drivers of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), the clinical utility of the lipid accumulation product (LAP) for identifying prevalent MASLD in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) remains insufficiently characterized. This study aimed to characterize the dose-response relationship between LAP and MASLD in T2DM, establish optimal sex-specific diagnostic thresholds, and evaluate its clinical net benefit to guide non-invasive screening.

METHODS

This study included 495 inpatients with T2DM. log10LAP was prioritized using the Boruta algorithm. Diagnostic cut-offs were determined via ROC analysis. The mathematical reliability of these thresholds was evaluated using 1,000-run stratified bootstrapping (internal validation), while the biological generalizability of LAP was further examined in an independent NHANES cohort (external validation). The dose-response relationship was characterized by restricted cubic splines (RCS). Clinical utility and stability were assessed using decision curve analysis (DCA) and subgroup analyses.

RESULTS

Through a systematic feature-selection approach using the Boruta algorithm, log10LAP was objectively identified as the most robust indicator for MASLD.log10LAP was independently associated with MASLD (OR 1.83, 95% CI 1.43-2.35). Optimal sex-specific cut-offs were 20.4 for men and 27.0 for women, yielding a positive predictive value of 85.93%. RCS analysis revealed a significant linear association, with MASLD probability increasing monotonically with log10LAP. DCA demonstrated a consistently higher net benefit for the LAP-based model over the "screen-all" strategy at threshold probabilities > 0.20. Subgroup analyses confirmed robustness across age and BMI strata, with the highest discriminative power in patients aged < 55 years (AUC 0.855) and reliable performance in non-obese individuals (AUC 0.711). External analysis in the NHANES cohort (N = 630) demonstrated consistent independent associations between LAP and MASLD risk (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

log10LAP is a robust linear predictor of MASLD in T2DM. Implementing tailored thresholds provides superior diagnostic precision and clinical net benefit, particularly for younger and non-obese populations, supporting its use as a prioritized non-invasive screening tool.