Why the study?
Is nonalcoholic fatty liver disease associated with subclinical cardiac structural and functional abnormalities?
Is nonalcoholic fatty liver disease associated with subclinical cardiac structural and functional abnormalities?
This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to evaluate the association between NAFLD and subclinical cardiac structural and functional abnormalities.
NAFLD was associated with subclinical cardiac abnormalities; supports integrated risk assessment but leaves prospective validation open.
In the last 20 years, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become the leading cause of chronic liver disease worldwide, primarily as a result of the epidemic of obesity. NAFLD is strongly associated with insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, and dyslipidemia and is currently regarded as the liver manifestation of the metabolic syndrome, a highly atherogenic condition even at a very early age. Patients with NAFLD including pediatric subjects have a higher prevalence of subclinical atherosclerosis, as shown by impaired flow-mediated vasodilation, increased carotid artery intima-media thickness, and arterial stiffness, which are independent of obesity and other established risk factors. More recent work has identified NAFLD as a risk factor not only for premature coronary heart disease and cardiovascular events, but also for early subclinical abnormalities in myocardial structure and function. Thus, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to test the hypothesis that NAFLD is associated with evidence of subclinical cardiac structural and functional abnormalities.
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Bonci et al. (2015) studied this question.
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