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. 2020 Jun;40(6):1339-1343.
doi: 10.1111/liv.14472. Epub 2020 Apr 24.

Increasing liver fat is associated with progression of cardiovascular risk factors

Katherine T Brunner  1 , Alison Pedley  2 , Joseph M Massaro  3 , Udo Hoffmann  4 , Emelia J Benjamin  2   5   6 , Michelle T Long  1   2
Affiliations

Increasing liver fat is associated with progression of cardiovascular risk factors

Katherine T Brunner et al. Liver Int. 2020 Jun.

Abstract

Background: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease is associated with cardiovascular risk factors in cross-sectional analyses. However, less is known about how changes in liver fat associate with the progression of cardiovascular risk factors.

Methods: A substudy (n = 808) drawn from the Framingham Heart Study underwent serial computed tomography scans 6 years apart. We performed multivariable-adjusted regression to determine the association between changes in liver fat and progression of cardiovascular risk factors.

Results: Each standard deviation increase in liver fat was associated with adverse progression of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, fasting glucose, high-density lipoprotein and log triglycerides. After adjusting for baseline cardiovascular risk, baseline body mass index (BMI), and change in BMI, increasing liver fat was significantly associated with adverse changes in fasting glucose and triglycerides.

Conclusions: In a longitudinal cohort, increasing liver fat over 6 years was associated with progression of cardiovascular risk factors, even after accounting for BMI changes.

Keywords: BMI; NAFLD; computed tomography; diabetes; metabolic syndrome.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

Alison Pedley is an employee of Merck. The other authors have no conflicts to report.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Multivariable-adjusted least-square means of the change in cardiovascular disease risk factors by categories of liver fat change. The categories of liver fat change were defined as decreasing liver fat (bottom quartile of liver phantom ratio change; n = 202), stable liver fat (middle two quartiles of liver phantom ratio change; n = 404), and increasing liver fat (top quartile of liver phantom ratio change; n = 202). P values are for the test for trend. Models were adjusted for baseline age, sex, baseline smoking status, baseline drinks per week, baseline liver phantom ratio, baseline outcome variables and treatment variables at baseline and follow-up
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