Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Feb;31(1):27-31.
doi: 10.1097/MOL.0000000000000652.

Fatty liver, cardiometabolic disease and mortality

Giorgio Bedogni  1 , Amalia Gastaldelli  2 , Francesco G Foschi  3
Affiliations
Review

Fatty liver, cardiometabolic disease and mortality

Giorgio Bedogni et al. Curr Opin Lipidol. 2020 Feb.

Abstract

Purpose of review: We discuss the findings of the most recent metanalyses on the association between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), cardiometabolic disease and mortality.

Recent findings: Recent metanalyses have shown that NAFLD is associated with incident type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and incident cardiovascular disease (CVD). Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, which can be diagnosed by liver biopsy only in tertiary care centers, is often associated with liver fibrosis, which has been shown by metanalyses to increase both cardiovascular and liver-related mortality. Hyperlipidemia, lipotoxicity and impaired insulin secretion are among the possible mechanisms underlying the association of NAFLD with T2DM and CVD. Metanalyses of the association between NAFLD and mortality in the general population, where risk stratification cannot be performed on the basis of liver biopsy, have given contradictory results.

Summary: To establish conclusively whether NAFLD adds to known prognostic factors of death in the general population will require a shared operational definition of NAFLD, purposefully designed cohort studies, and the use of clinically relevant measures of effect size.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Gastaldelli A, Cusi K. From NASH to diabetes and from diabetes to NASH: mechanisms and treatment options. JHEP Rep. In press. https://www.jhep-reports.eu/article/S2589-5559(19)30079-5/fulltext.
    1. European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), European Association for the Study of Obesity (EASO). EASL–EASD–EASO Clinical Practice Guidelines for the management of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. J Hepatol 2016; 64:1388–1402.
    1. Kleiner DE, Brunt EM, Van Natta M, Behling C, et al. Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network. Design and validation of a histological scoring system for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. Hepatology 2005; 41:1313–1321.
    1. Szczepaniak LS, Nurenberg P, Leonard D, Browning JD, et al. Magnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure hepatic triglyceride content: prevalence of hepatic steatosis in the general population. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2005; 288:E462–E468.
    1. Younossi ZM, Koenig AB, Abdelatif D, Fazel Y, et al. Global epidemiology of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease—meta-analytic assessment of prevalence, incidence, and outcomes. Hepatology 2016; 64:73–84.