New Study Quantifies Link Between NAFLD and Heart Failure

While the association between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and increased risk of new-onset heart failure (HF) has been established, a new study published in Gut elaborates on the magnitude of the risk and the change in the risk with severity of liver disease.

The research revealed that NAFLD is associated with a 1.5-fold higher long-term risk of new-onset HF, regardless of the presence of diabetes, hypertension, and other common cardiovascular risk factors.

Searches of Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed over a median of 10 years identified 11 longitudinal cohort studies comprising more than 11 million patients in which NAFLD was diagnosed by serum biomarkers, International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes, imaging techniques or liver histology.

“NAFLD was associated with a moderately higher risk of new-onset HF (pooled random-effects hazard ratio 1.50, 95% CI 1.34 to 1.67, p<0.0001),” the researchers stated. “This risk was independent of age, sex, ethnicity, adiposity measures, diabetes, hypertension, and other common cardiovascular risk factors.” Furthermore, the risk of new-onset HF appeared to increase significantly with greater severity of NAFLD, especially with higher fibrosis stage.

Further quantifying the association between NAFLD and increased risk of new-onset HF, the authors noted, should enable clinicians to improve monitoring for HF among patients with NAFLD.

—Priyam Vora

Reference:
Mantovani A, Petracca G, Csermely A et al. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and risk of new-onset heart failure: an updated meta-analysis of about 11 million individuals. Gut. Published online: July 25, 2022. DOI: 10.1136/gutjnl-2022-327672