## 3 Results
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Variables** & **F1/F2** & **F3/F4** & \(p\)**-Value * \\ \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{Sex} \\ \hline Female (\%) & 48.43 & 7.82 & 0.021 \\ \hline Male (\%) & 32.82 & 10.93 & 0.032 \\ \hline Age (years) & 48.66 \(\pm\) 8.19 & 55.41 \(\pm\) 6.85 & \textless{}0.001 \\ \hline Waist circumference (cm) & 91.96 \(\pm\) 9.51 & 94.66 \(\pm\) 12.64 & 0.053 \\ \hline BMI (kg/m\({}^{2}\)) & 28.11 \(\pm\) 2.45 & 30.22 \(\pm\) 2.77 & 0.02 \\ \hline Hypertension (\%) & 78.3 & 69.4 & 0.087 \\ \hline MS (\%) & 68.30 & 79.7 & \textless{}0.001 \\ \hline Cholesterol (mg/dl) & 228.76 \(\pm\) 67.75 & 221.6 \(\pm\) 54.92 & 0.473 \\ \hline HDL-C (mg/dl) & 37 \(\pm\) 6.03 & 32 \(\pm\) 5.09 & 0.341 \\ \hline LDL-C (mg/dl) & 105.4 \(\pm\) 45.6 & 109.2 \(\pm\) 48.5 & 0.654 \\ \hline Serum triglycerides (mg/dl) & 194.49 \(\pm\) 60.7 & 202.58 \(\pm\) 54.92 & 0.032 \\ \hline AST (U/L) & 82.15 \(\pm\) 18.14 & 91.94 \(\pm\) 16.3 & 0.021 \\ \hline ALT (U/L) & 85.09 \(\pm\) 31.9 & 92.14 \(\pm\) 23.13 & 0.047 \\ \hline GGT (U/L) & 99.36 \(\pm\) 48.76 & 140.02 \(\pm\) 57.58 & \textless{}0.001 \\ \hline Albumin (g/dl) & 3.75 \(\pm\) 0.56 & 3.46 \(\pm\) 0.59 & 0.054 \\ \hline INR & 1.03 \(\pm\) 0.14 & 0.14 \(\pm\) 0.12 & 0.847 \\ \hline Duration of T2 DM (years) & 7.1 \(\pm\) 3.4 & 8.4 \(\pm\) 4.1 & 0.547 \\ \hline Insulin use (\%) & 64.2 & 60.3 & 0.352 \\ \hline Serum glucose (g/dl) & 112.21 \(\pm\) 18.66 & 124.18 \(\pm\) 22.83 & 0.046 \\ \hline HbA1c (\%) & 6.2(5.1–8.2) & 7.1(5.9–9.2) & 0.032 \\ \hline HOMA-IR & 2.99 \(\pm\) 0.42 & 3.38 \(\pm\) 0.85 & 0.025 \\ \hline NFS & 0.01 (\(-\)1.5–1.8) & 1.48 (0.74–2.4) & \textless{}0.001 \\ \hline FIB-4 & 2.3 \(\pm\) 0.74 & 4.68 \(\pm\) 1.95 & 0.021 \\ \hline APRI & 0.87 \(\pm\) 0.2 & 1.69 \(\pm\) 0.5 & 0.015 \\ \hline pSWE (m/s) & 0.87 \(\pm\) 0.22 & 2.04 \(\pm\) 0.26 & \textless{}0.001 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* Values are statistically significant at \(p<\) 0.05; BMI—body mass index; MS—metabolic syndrome; HDL–C—high-density cholesterol; LDL–C—low-density cholesterol; AST—aspartate amino transferase; ALT—alanine amino transferase; GGT—gamma-glutamyltransferase; INR—international normalized ratio; HbA1c—glycosylated hemoglobin; HOMA-IR—homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance; NPS—NAFLD fibrosis score; FIB—Ethosal4; APRI—AST-to-platelet ratio index; pSWE—point shear-wave elastography.  
\end{table} 
Table 2: Comparison of clinical and biochemical parameters. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed, and the results are displayed in Table 4. Using the cut-off points obtained from ROC analyses, GGT (>113 U/L), age (>55 years), BMI (>30.1 kg/m\({}^{2}\)), HOMA-IR (>3.3), and HbA1 c (>6.5%) were independently associated with the prediction of the F3/F4 group. Based on the results of the multivariate analyses, we created a new scoring system that comprises the following parameters: GGT values of <113 U/L and \(\geq\)113 U/L were scored as 0 and 1, respectively; ages < 55 years and \(\geq\)55 years were scored as 0 and 1, respectively; BMIs of <30.1 and \(\geq\)30.1 were scored as 0 and 1, respectively; HOMA-IR values of <3.3 and \(\geq\)3.3 were scored as 0 and 1, respectively; and HbA1c levels of <6.5% and \(\geq\)6.5% were scored as 0 and 1, respectively. The composite score was defined as the sum of the GGT value, age, BMI, HOMA value, and HbA1C level. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for the prediction of F3/F4 are shown in Figures 1 and 2. The composite score had the highest significant diagnostic performance for the prediction of F3/F4 (0.899(0.792-0.986), \(p<0.005\)), followed by NFS, APRI, and FIB-4 scores. Using a cut-off score of 3 points, the sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV were 85.3%, 91.2%, 79%, and 89%, respectively.