INS and type 2 diabetes mellitus: Collectively, our findings confirm and extend the aforementioned observations, showing a strong association between lower plasma adiponectin levels and the presence and severity of NAFLD (as assessed with liver ultrasonography and Fibroscan®, which are the two most widely used diagnostic tools to non-invasively diagnose and stage NAFLD in clinical practice [31]) in Caucasian outpatients with non-insulin-treated T2DM.