Abstract: Objective This study was conducted to investigate diagnostic performance of atherogenic index of plasma (AIP)in predicting patients with metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) from physical examination population. Methods 4988 individuals underwent physical examination in the Physical Examination Center, West China Hospital, affiliated to Sichuan University between July 2020 and December 2022. Routine blood fat was detected for calculation of AIP. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis was applied to reveal risk factors, and receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to assess diagnostic efficacy. Results Of 4988 individuals at physical examination, 1589 patients(32.4%)was found having MAFLD; hyperlipidemia was common in patients with MAFLD, and AIP was 0.2(0.0-0.4), much greater than [0.1(0.1-0.3), P<0.001] in those without MAFLD; multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that AIP, TG, HDL, LDL and TC were all the independent risk factors for MAFLD existence (P<0.05); ROC analysis demonstrated the AUC was 0.785 by AIP predicting MAFLD, much higher than TG(0.764), HDL (0.750), LDL (0.568) OR TC (0.552) doing; the AUC was 0.817 by AIP in diagnosing female MAFLD, much higher than 0.714 in diagnosing male MAFLD, and it was 0.825 in predicting MAFLD in persons younger than 45 year old, much higher than 0.742 in predicting MAFLD in those older than 45 year old (P<0.001). Conclusion AIP has a satisfactory diagnostic performance in predicting MAFLD, which might be used for screening at physical examination centers.

Key words: Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease, Atherogenic index of plasma, Receiver operation characteristic curve, Diagnosis