Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of patients in SA and EA group

	Sham acupuncture (SA) n = 27	Electro-acupuncture (EA) n = 30	p value
Age, years (mean $\pm$ SD)	41.6 $\pm$ 10.8	39.1 $\pm$ 10.8	0.389
Gender, n (%)			0.026*
Female	12 (44.4%)	22 (73.3%)
Male	15 (55.6%)	8 (26.7%)
Smoking, n (%)	3 (11.1%)	3 (10.0%)	0.891
Drinking, n (%)	5 (18.5%)	6 (20.0%)	0.888
Diabetes, n (%)	5 (18.5%)	9 (30.0%)	0.315
Hypertension, n (%)	9 (33.3%)	9 (30.0%)	0.787
Non-invasive Test
Liver fat by MRI-PDFF, % [medium (p25, p75)]	20.8 (14.0, 28.1)	20.3 (13.8, 25.1)	0.371
Liver stiffness by MRE, kPa (mean $\pm$ SD)	2.4 $\pm$ 0.7	2.6 $\pm$ 0.9	0.519
Anthropometry parameters
BMI, kg/m2 (mean $\pm$ SD)	31.8 $\pm$ 4.9	33.0 $\pm$ 4.1	0.342
Body weight, Kg (mean $\pm$ SD)	91.4 $\pm$ 19.3	90.9 $\pm$ 14.0	0.899
WHR % (mean $\pm$ SD)	92.8 $\pm$ 6.7	92.5 $\pm$ 5.6	0.870
Biochemical varieties
ALT, U/L [medium (p25, p75)]	89.0 (81.5, 114.0)	95.5 (78.0, 121.0)	0.576
AST, U/L [medium (p25, p75)]	50.5 (44.5, 66.0)	60.6 (48.9, 80.1)	0.099
GGT, U/L [medium (p25, p75)]	67.0 (40.0, 78.0)	54.0 (37.8, 79.8)	0.533
ALP, U/L (mean $\pm$ SD)	92.8 $\pm$ 27.5	89.8 $\pm$ 23.8	0.659
TC, mmol/L (mean $\pm$ SD)	5.7 $\pm$ 1.0	5.6 $\pm$ 1.3	0.675
TG, mmol/L [medium (p25, p75)]	1.8 (1.3, 2.2)	1.7 (1.4, 3.4)	0.743
LDL-C, mmol/L (mean $\pm$ SD)	3.5 $\pm$ 0.7	3.3 $\pm$ 0.7	0.296
FBG, mmol/L (mean $\pm$ SD)	5.9 $\pm$ 1.1	6.1 $\pm$ 1.2	0.522
HbA1c % (mean $\pm$ SD)	5.9 $\pm$ 0.8	6.00 $\pm$ 0.7	0.624
HOMA-IR [medium (p25, p75)]	6.9 (4.3, 13.5)	9.3 (5.6, 13.7)	0.174