Lisbon (EGMN) – Increased hepatic fat deposition, inflammation and fibrosis can lead to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, especially in patients with diabetes, according to a small retrospective study presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes. In this study, Christopher Byrne, PhD, professor of endocrinology and metabolic disease at the University of Southampton, and colleagues included 112 patients with biopsy-proven nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), aiming to clarify whether the Kleiner score, a histopathological index for evaluating the severity of NAFLD, is associated with cardiovascular risk and whether, in patients known to be at high cardiovascular risk patients, i.e., diabetic patients, whether the score was higher. The mean age of the patients was 48 years and the mean Kleiner score was 5.3. The median Framingham risk score was 13 and the median QRISK2 score was 8, both of which are indicators of cardiovascular risk assessment. The mean body mass index was about 34 kg/m2. The results showed that the Kleiner score was highly correlated with the above two cardiovascular risk evaluation indexes. In addition, 32 diabetic patients had higher Kleiner scores than non-diabetic patients (6.4 vs. 4.7, P<0.001). the correlation between increased severity of NAFLD and increased risk of cardiovascular disease was independent of the two factors of hyperglycemia and weight gain. Patients with NAFLD had the highest estimated cardiovascular risk. The investigators say more prospective studies are needed in the future to clarify which markers can be used to distinguish patients who need biopsy and how best to manage patients with NAFLD. To date, there are very few cardiovascular risk reduction treatment options available for patients with NAFLD. The only treatment option proven to be effective for NAFLD is lifestyle modification. These patients can be treated clinically with a combination of antihypertensive and lipid-lowering medications commonly used to reduce cardiovascular risk and lifestyle modification.